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National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008 (Act No. 59 of 2008)

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Guideline and Toolkit for the Determination of Extended Producer Responsibility Fees

1. Background

 

On 05 November 2020, the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, published the EPR Regulations in terms of section 69(1)(b), (g), (i), (I), (o), and (dd) of NEM: WA for implementation. The implementation of the EPR Regulations was subsequently postponed through an amendment to 05 May 2021.

 

EPR is an environmental management policy approach where a producer's responsibility for the product they place on the market is extended to the post-consumer stage of the product's life cycle. The approach was developed in response to increasing pressure on the public sector to better manage and recycle the growing volumes and complexities of waste.

 

Under EPR, producers can be held responsible in three distinct ways, namely:

• Physical responsibility, which includes taking back end of life (EOL) products.
• Responsibility to provide information on the attributes of products.
• Producers can be held financially liable for environmental damage and clean-up costs of EOL product dumping.

 

The goal of the EPR Regulations is to extend the producer’s physical and financial responsibility for an identified product to the post-consumer stage of the product’s life cycle. This allows for the end-of-life management costs to be borne by the producer. This provides an incentive for producers to take environmental considerations into account throughout the products' life from the design phase to their end-of-life. The EPR Regulations enable the management and minimisation of waste according to high environmental standards.1

 

The implementation of well-designed EPR schemes can advance the circular economy, promote efficient resource use and recovery, and contribute towards pollution prevention. It will have significant environmental, economic and social benefits including:

• Reduced demand for virgin materials through appropriate fees that internalise the costs of waste management and targets for product reuse, recycling and use of recycled content. The substitution of virgin material with recovered and recycled waste will ensure sufficient resource availability for current and future generations and mitigate greenhouse gas and other emissions into the atmosphere. It will also promote efficient water use and reduce biodiversity loss and land degradation due to resource extraction.
• The establishment of critical waste collection systems and recycling infrastructure will promote waste diversion from landfills and support economic development in South Africa. It will also promote the emergence of new green industries, markets for recycled materials and green entrepreneurship opportunities.
• EPR can promote innovative and sustainable business models for waste management, product design for reuse and recyclability, and alternative materials. Importantly, it can also promote the competitiveness of local businesses and job creation and livelihood opportunities for many.

 

It is therefore in line with this background that this Guideline document has been developed. The Guideline document will provide guidance on the determination of EPR fees to PROs and producers implementing their own EPR schemes.

 

This Guideline document sets out the following:

• EPR fee determination methods applicable within the South African context;
• International examples of EPR schemes, product coverage and fee design considerations;
• Key principles, criteria and other factors to be considered when setting fees;
• Conditions and options for fee adjustments; and
• A Toolkit is provided to aid and simplify the calculations.

 

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1 Monier V., Hestin M., Cavé J., Laureysens I., Watkins E., Reisinger H. (2014). Development of Guidance on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/pdf/waste/target_review/Guidance%20on%20EPR%20-%20Final%20Report.pdf [Accessed 22 August 2023].