Eco-Fees: Changing ‘Visibility Concerns’ to ‘Visible Change’ – Environmental Leader

Extended producer responsibility (EPR)—the practice of requiring the organization that produces a product or material to take responsibility for its end-of-life disposal—has sparked debate concerning “eco-fees,” a front-end charge for the disposal and recycling of products that take up space in landfills or are potentially harmful if they make their way into the waste stream.

Municipalities historically have borne the burden of proper recycling and disposal costs. Not surprisingly, these entities support EPR programs, which shift the financial responsibility from them ...

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Eco-fees: We’re missing the point

HiResOne of the goals of extended producer responsibility (EPR) is to provide funding, on the front end, for the disposal and recycling of products that are potentially harmful to the waste stream or may simply be a burden to handle.  Those fees, commonly known as “eco-fees”, may then be passed down to the purchaser either by being embedded in the product’s price or as a separate visible line item at the ...

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Critical Considerations Can Mean Success or Failure for an EPR Program – Environmental Leader

Success in any industry invariably begets copycats. When a zombie movie dominates the box office, more zombie movies follow. And it’s not limited to just Hollywood. We’ve seen the same thing in public policy.

When some governments realized that privatizing services such as waste management could raise capital, many others followed. But copying success is no guarantee of continued success. There have been many bad zombie films. And there have been many instances where privatizing critical municipal services has resulted ...

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Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Issues Updated “Green Guides” – What You Should Know

As consumers become more environmentally aware, the marketplace has stepped up to meet demand by competing for your attention with labels and badges claiming to be “eco-friendly,” “recyclable,” and/or “green.” But a new and improved product with “50% more recycled content” may not be what it claims to be if only 3% of its total makeup comes from recycled content. And what is actually “Recyclable” if a claim doesn’t indicate whether it is referring to the product or the packaging ...

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Were The Holidays Good To You This Year?

ATLANTA, December 25, 2002 — Did you get what was on your wish list this holiday season? Studies predicted that more than 75 percent of consumers would purchase at least one cordless electronic product as a gift – like a portable CD player, a digital camera, or a cordless or cellular phone – which means a lot more people are walking around “unplugged.”

However, many people may not know that the rechargeable batteries that power the latest and greatest portable ...

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