Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle. An EPR policy is characterised by:

1. The shifting of responsibility (physically and/or economically; fully or partially) upstream toward the producer and away from municipalities; and
2. The provision of incentives to producers to consider environmental considerations when designing their products.

While other policy instruments tend to target a single point in the chain, EPR seeks to integrate signals related to the environmental characteristics of products and production processes throughout the product chain. I think that this will be a gamechanger.