Plastic waste management is growingly becoming a challenge, intuitively fueling the global drive for fresh measures that spur producers and consumers toward contributing less harm to the environment. Two dominant mechanisms at the helm of this war are Extended Producer Responsibility and Plastic Credits. While EPR is driven by regulatory frameworks, Plastic Credits come out as market-based instruments designed to incentivize responsible management of plastic waste. In this blog, we shall see what the two mechanisms of EPR Plastic Credits are, their significance, how they work, and how they'll lead to solving the plastic pollution crisis.

What is EPR?

Extended Producer Responsibility means policy assigned to producers for the management of product life cycles of plastics. Rooted in the "polluter pays" principle, this policy requires businesses, brands, and companies to take full responsibility for collecting and recycling the plastic that they put into the market and be able to dispose of it properly. Giving producers these responsibilities, EPR fosters the circular economy principles as the manufacturer is urged to pursue sustainable product design and recycling mechanisms.

EPR policy generally comes in one of two common forms issued by governments:

• Mandatory EPR: this may be targets that the firms meet some set levels on either recycling or waste collection. In many cases where the targets are not achieved, there are penalties faced.

• Voluntary EPR: there is no criminal liability charged against the producer; however, they are supposed to report their environmental mitigation relative to the product in question, many times as a forerunner to more stringent or binding laws/regulations.

The Plastic Pollution Problem: Why EPR?

The EPR system helps to cope with growing plastic pollution. According to the estimates of the OECD Global Plastics Outlook 2022, only 9% of the annually produced 460 million tonnes of plastic get recycled, while an astonishing volume of 50% reaches landfills, and 22% leaks into the environment, causing devastating impacts on ecosystems, marine life, and human health.

A well-organized EPR framework would try to fix this by:

• Encouraging product stewardship by adopting reusable materials and recyclables.

• Encouragement of schemes for taking back deposits by a producer within a circular economy where plastic products have to be designed to have an extended lifecycle.

• Supporting infrastructure development for efficient plastic waste management.

What are Plastic Credits?

Plastic Credits are one of the market mechanisms for assigning an economic value to management efforts in plastic waste. While EPR places direct responsibility on the producer for waste management, Plastic Credits allow a producer to buy credits from certified organizations that do the job of removing plastic from the environment.

Under this system, the companies are not called upon to collect and recycle plastic waste. This is because the companies can buy credits when various accredited processors from recyclers to plant operators with accreditations collect plastic wastes from municipal areas or natural ecosystems. This offset allows companies to achieve sustainability without actually managing the waste by themselves.

EPR vs. Plastic Credits: What's the Difference?

While the objective of both the EPR and Plastic Credits is to reduce plastic pollution, the former differs from the latter in several ways:

• EPR directs regulatory frameworks to obtain accountability from producers for their product's life cycle, which starts with design and ends with disposal.

• Plastic Credits are a marketplace where  the positive environmental impact of waste collection and reprocessing is monetized into an instrument that can be traded, with firms buying credits to show proof of their plastic stewardship.

EPR's Role in PWM (Plastic Waste Management)

In the area of PWM, EPR presents producers with the responsibility of collecting and recycling plastic wastes. Mechanisms that have majorly been adopted in EPR systems include:

• Product Take-Back Programs: This is a process where the producers should take their products back upon reaching their end life. The program may be either mandatory or voluntary, depending on the local regulations.

• Economic Instruments: EPR systems often use financial incentives to encourage recycling. For example, the Deposit Refund System requires consumers to pay a deposit when purchasing products, which they reclaim by returning the used product for recycling.

How Plastic Credits Explain Plastic Waste Management?

Plastic Credits have emerged as an important tool in the integration of private-sector resources into municipal waste management systems. Companies, in this, offset their EPR targets by investing in plastic waste collection, segregation, and recycling. Each tonne of plastic that is collected or recycled can be measured and traded as credits that businesses purchase to meet their environmental obligations.

The production system, therefore, has to work in collaboration with Urban Local Bodies for the collection of waste products and, further, segregate and recycle them. Segregation models separate plastics for either mechanical or chemical recycling:

• Mechanical Recycling: Plastics are cut to pieces, washed, and then ground into powders or melted for reuse.

• Chemical Recycling: This process breaks down plastics into molecular components, known as monomers, for use in manufacturing.

Summary:

In today's plastic pollution crisis, it is EPR and Plastic Credits that carry immense value. EPR frameworks ensure producers take full responsibility for their products throughout their lifetime, from the initial design stage all the way to final waste management, creating more environmentally friendly designs and limiting the leakage of plastic waste into the environment.

The fact that there is an extended work of the complete EPR system, together with integrated benefits of Plastic Credits for sustainability in the process, is the ultimate goal for the stakeholders in the industry. As companies like Banyan Nation lead from the front in the circular economy, the future indeed looks bright, whereby a more environmentally responsible approach toward plastic waste management shall come into view.