We believe a key rationale for producers to bear responsibility for end-of-life management of their products is their ability to make changes upstream and in their entire product systems.  

EPR also supplements the Polluter Pays Principle by shifting the cost of waste management from general taxpayers to actors who actually benefit from products and generate waste from products. By tapping on the producers’ expertise and resources, we have more opportunities to have products designed for reuse, repair, refurbishment, and when they really come to end-of-life, easy to recycle.

A community like ExPeRt Hub serves as a meeting point for industry actors in various parts of the product life cycle, such as producers, refurbishers and recyclers. Producers can hear first-hand view on, e.g. what challenges refurbishers and recyclers face in their operations. That would in turn enable producers to consider these challenges in their design strategies. Such a community might also provide opportunities for actors such as municipalities to meet with PROs and discuss strategies for improved collection of a specific waste stream, a prerequisite for closure of material loops.