EPR in the Global South: CEFLEX explores finance, data and expertise shortages

24 Apr 2023 --- Extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes differ substantially from each other and need country-specific approaches to function successfully. Specificities in the Global South are driven by a range of approaches and constraints in applying legislation, a significant gap in infrastructure and finance and a high number of informal actors. 

At a recent CEFLEX (Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging) panel discussion, experts discussed the challenges and constraints for EPR schemes in the Global South. PackagingInsights speaks to some of the speakers about their findings. 

Outlining some of the tensions and trends shaping developments, Derek Stephenson, president at consulting group Strategy Matters explains: “There are significant challenges today in trying to integrate EPR and the informal sector, which give quite different operating conditions.”

“We have national policies which try to incorporate informal recyclers, but we’ve got mayors and local governments who may have a different view. We also have informal sectors and waste management companies and recycling industries that sometimes see each other as competitors.”

“Meanwhile, new requirements for producers to audit their entire supply chain, not just their direct suppliers are driving producers’ growing concerns about what responsibility they have for that supply chain, including recyclers both organized and not organized,” he says. 

Derek Stephenson, president at Strategy Matters.Global South EPR constraints
EPR is a powerful tool with traction around the world and an essential part of solving the plastic pollution problem, assert the CEFLEX experts.

“However, it is not a silver bullet and works best when matched with infrastructure and policies related to waste management and circular economy underlined by many on the panel,” Alec Walker-Love, project consultant at CEFLEX tells us. 

“This is not always the case, especially in the Global South, where a lack of finance, access to expertise and a significant informal sector all play a role.”

Speakers at the CEFLEX session highlighted knowledge transfer, waste financing and stakeholder engagement as priority needs in the Global South. “Many efforts to develop EPR systems in the Global South need help. They are desperately short of money and expertise. There is generally no waste data tracking system, no user pay mechanism for waste, and environmental assistance has generally been weak,” explains Stephenson.

Establishing a global plastics treaty 
As part of their regular stakeholder-exclusive webinars, a panel of international experts joined CEFLEX in March of this year to explore how EPR can best shape and drive material circularity around the world – with a focus on the “Global South.” 

The panel’s purpose was to identify flexible packagings’ key developments, better understand perspectives from the informal waste sector and governments ahead of the next round of UNEP intergovernmental negotiations on a Global Treaty to End Plastics Pollution.

In Europe, CEFLEX has developed its “EPR Criteria for Circularity” as a practical check list for EPR schemes and stakeholders to work through on their journey to making packaging waste materials circular. The concept is well established in Europe and is being developed across North and Latin America, Asia and Australia.

To explore the Global South, the session included views from Ghana, Chile, India and the informal sector in more detail – with additional examples in Brazil, Mexico and Columbia.

EPR is a powerful tool with traction around the world and an essential part of solving the plastic pollution problem, assert the CEFLEX experts.The Global South’s informal waste sector
Walker-Love explains the informal sector is a defining and critical factor to address in the Global South. In addition to informal actors in supply chains, millions of people in developing countries act as informal actors in managing waste. 

These actors, waste pickers, depend on this activity for their livelihoods. They are demanding fair wages and working conditions and a level playing field with the formal waste management sector so that they can compete. 

“Waste pickers are also seeking transparency in the development and implementation of EPR schemes to ensure that they are supported in terms of infrastructure, to get training, certification and financial support,” highlights Walker-Love.

He continues that in Ghana, for instance, it is estimated that 70% of plastic value chain actors are informal – such as food producers and not just at the waste management stage, meaning that there is no system to trace who is placing products on the market and in what quantities. 

“This makes it challenging to implement a requirement for EPR fees to be collected from producers. If the fees are paid only by the formal sector, huge amounts of packaging will be unaccounted for,” warns Walker-Love.

“This significant participation from the informal sector also needs to be considered when trying to bridge the significant funding gap faced by nearly every country in the Global South as they seek to reduce pollution and develop the required end of life infrastructure.”

Solid waste challenges in Latin America 
A leading expert in EPR across Latin America and beyond, Rodrigo Leiva Neumann, director-general of EPR and circular economy consultancy Valoryza, gave the panel an overview of adoption and implementation across the continent. “We have lots of EPR regulations across Latin America, but only a few systems are operating – and that is a big issue in our region,” he says. 

“Added to this, there is a real diversity in the type of system. In Brazil and Mexico, something approaching EPR is applied – a system of shared product responsibility, where the producer is not the leading body or entity, but they have been doing very well – especially in Brazil – regarding waste picker recognition and inclusion.”

“Another example is Colombia, where an EPR system has been operational since 2021. Complete with recycling targets and compliance schemes. For the moment, these recycling targets are not specific and for all types of materials. So, some improvement to ensure plastics are managed correctly, but I think they will, in the future, become precise,” continues Neumann.

Rodrigo Leiva Neumann, director-general of EPR and circular economy consultancy Valoryza. Speaking about his own country, Chile, he outlines the robust EPR regulations and approach – but also the progress areas still to make. “Implementation of EPR in Chile is entering its next phase in mid-2023 and several cooperatives of formalized waste pickers are getting ready to participate in the system’s operation.”

“The top items EPR in Latin America needs are political will, resources for governmental agencies, consistent progress, recognition of the informal sector and regulation enforcement,” highlights Neumann. 

Meanwhile, a report from the Inter-American Development Bank on the “Financial sustainability of solid waste management in Latin America and the Caribbean” sets out the situation in stark terms.

The results of the publication’s analysis indicate that an average of US$13.4 billion per year and an estimated figure of US$34 billion over the next eight years is needed to achieve the proposed Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 – with the bulk of this in infrastructure development, operation and maintenance. 

Scratching the surface
If the picture is complex in Europe, the CEFLEX event panel showed it could be even more complex and challenging to ensure effective, high-performance EPR schemes in the Global South.

“Meaningful policies and regulations to create them [EPR schemes] are developing though, and the UN global treaty is further underlining just how important EPR can be in reducing plastic pollution, managing waste and driving material circularity around the world,” highlights Stephenson.

He continues that transferring experience from more established EPR experiences in the north will be a real challenge. Still, there is opportunity to bypass some of the mistakes in conception and deployment.

“Even with our rich examples and experts today, we are indeed scratching the surface on a very, very fascinating discussion, and one that will accelerate with the next meeting in Paris for the Intergovernmental negotiating committee on plastic pollution in May-June this year,” concludes Stephenson. 

By Natalie Schwertheim