The full name of EPR is Extended Producers Responsibility, which is translated as “extended producer responsibility”. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is an EU environmental policy requirement. Mainly based on the principle of “polluter pays”, producers are required to reduce the impact of their goods on the environment within the entire life cycle of the goods and be responsible for the entire life cycle of the goods they put on the market (that is, from the production design of the goods to the management and disposal of waste). In general, EPR aims to improve environmental quality by preventing and reducing the impact of commodity packaging and packaging waste, electronic goods, batteries and other commodities on the environment.
EPR is also a management system framework, which has legislative practices in different EU countries/regions. However, EPR is not the name of a regulation, but the environmental protection requirements of the EU. For example, the EU WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive, the German Electrical Equipment Law, the Packaging Law, and the Battery Law all belong to the legislative practice of this system in the EU and Germany respectively.
Which businesses need to register for EPR? How to determine whether a business is a producer defined by EPR?
The definition of producer includes the first party that introduces the goods subject to EPR requirements to the applicable countries/regions, whether through domestic production or import, so the producer is not necessarily the manufacturer.
① For the packaging category, if the merchants first introduce the packaged goods containing goods, which are usually regarded as waste by the end users, into the relevant local market for commercial purposes, they will be regarded as producers. Therefore, if the goods sold contain any type of packaging (including secondary packaging delivered to the end user), businesses will be considered as producers.
② For other applicable categories, businesses will be considered as producers if they meet the following conditions:
● If you manufacture goods in corresponding countries/regions that need to meet the requirements of extended producer responsibility,;
● If you import the goods that need to meet the requirements of extended producer responsibility to the corresponding country/region;
● If you sell goods that need to meet the requirements of the extension of producer responsibility to the corresponding country/region, and have not established a company in that country/region (Note: Most Chinese businesses are such producers. If you are not the manufacturer of the goods, you need to obtain the applicable EPR registration number from your upstream supplier/manufacturer, and provide the EPR registration number of the relevant goods as proof of compliance).
Post time: Nov-23-2022