Extended Producer Responsibility
Zero Waste Scotland has worked closely with the Scottish Government in its work with the UK government to develop, review and implement extended producer responsibility schemes.
What is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)?
The concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR) is about ensuring that producers bear responsibility for the environmental impacts of products they place on the market, and are incentivised to reduce these impacts. At the heart of this lies the opportunity to consider the whole lifecycle of a product. EPR can influence design, maximising a product’s useful life through reuse, repair and durability, as well as ensuring that the costs of collecting, recycling and disposing of products at end-of-life does not fall on local authorities.
This can be through a variety of mechanisms. As a minimum, EPR can be used to ensure that producers pay the costs of correct management for their products when they become waste. This is particularly important for hazardous products and materials such as batteries and electrical equipment. However, EPR can also drive better design choices for a wide range of products by ensuring environmental impacts are reflected in the costs producers must pay.
EPR and Product Stewardship
EPR is one mechanism amongst many to improve the circularly of products and materials.
It falls under the umbrella term ‘Product Stewardship’. Product stewardship is a policy approach that ensures all parties involved in the design, production, sale, and use of a product share responsibility for minimising its environmental impact.
Why do we need it?
At present, approximately 80% of Scotland’s carbon footprint is caused by the goods and services we consume. This includes extraction, transport and manufacturing processes. In the current 'linear' system, products are made, used, and disposed of. This is not good for businesses, people, or the environment.
EPR is a powerful measure that can accelerate progress towards a more circular economy, where products are designed to be reused, repaired and remanufactured, rather than disposed of.
Keeping products in use for longer reduces the environmental, social and economic impacts of extraction, manufacturing, use and disposal, helping to reduce global impacts on biodiversity, emissions reduction targets and contributing to a just transition for all. The job and skills opportunities contribute towards a fairer, greener wellbeing economy.
What can an EPR scheme do?
EPR schemes can place responsibility for the environmental or financial impacts of a product on the producer. Historically the focus has been on ensuring there are responsible disposal options for products at the end of their useful lives. Producers may take responsibility for doing this themselves or pay another organisation to do it, such as a local authority or private waste management company. Schemes are frequently accompanied by product labelling and consumer information to encourage responsible behaviours.
EPR can act as a tool to improve product design in order to prolong the lifecycle of materials, to increase reuse and therefore keep materials in use for longer, or enhance recycling at end of life to offset the need for virgin material. It can also disincentivise unnecessary disposable items that are frequently discarded after one use. This reduces pollution and waste.
How do typical EPR schemes work?
EPR schemes can be mandatory (introduced by a government via legislation) or voluntary. They place obligations on companies who make goods available to the market – the producers. Schemes may allow producers to choose whether they meet obligations themselves or pay another organisation to do this on their behalf. Some schemes require producers to register with a Producer Responsibility Organisation or compliance scheme to ensure they meet their obligations.
Producers may be required to pay fees as an upfront charge based on the impact of a product, provide physical collection of their products at the end of their lives, or through market-driven mechanisms such as Packaging Waste Recovery Notes to increase investing in waste management infrastructure and ensure reprocessing of material takes place.
Existing schemes
Scotland is part of four UK EPR systems covering:
- Packaging – Zero Waste Scotland is supporting Scottish Government, along with the other UK administrations, to design a packaging EPR scheme that has a positive long-term impact, is consistent and works well for all citizens. We are working to ensure that the scheme is appropriately designed to help meet Scotland's objectives.
- Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) – Zero Waste Scotland is supporting Scottish Government, along with the other UK administrations, to review the current WEEE EPR scheme to improve collection, increase recycling increase reuse and keep products in use for longer ensure that the scheme is appropriately designed to help meet Scotland's objectives.
- Batteries – Zero Waste Scotland is supporting Scottish Government, along with the other UK administrations, to review the current UK batteries EPR scheme to increase recycling rates, adopt circular economy principles to reduce consumption of critical raw materials and rare earth elements and consider ambitious proposals for a rapidly changing product group.
- End of Life Vehicles.
Zero Waste Scotland continues to work with organisations to further policy discussions on producer responsibility. To that end, we have explored mattress EPR with the National Bed Federation, commissioned research to explore options to improve the circularity of waste tyres and were part of initial discussions on fishing gear EPR to align with Single Use Plastics Directive requirements pre-EU Exit. We have also set out broader strategic considerations for reform in our thought leadership report Producer Responsibility for a Circular Economy.
What is the future of EPR?
The possibilities for EPR are huge and could cover everything from food packaging to building design. However, EPR schemes have typically been used to maximise recyclability and meet recycling targets for a limited number of products. There is a huge potential to combine EPR with other policy measures as part of a Product Stewardship approach that fully considers the value chain, all actors within it and designs policy tools to minimise whole life cycle social, economic and environmental impacts of products.
Zero Waste Scotland is supporting the Scottish Government, who are committed to working with the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations of Wales and Northern Ireland to improve and expand the use of EPR to accelerate a circular economy. Zero Waste Scotland recognises the huge potential of EPR to tackle a range of environmental issues associated with the production, use and disposal of products and materials.
Report summary
The report looks at which types of packaging and related items are most often found as litter on streets and roads between April 2024 and March 2025. This information helps policymakers track progress and decide where to focus efforts to reduce waste and improve local environments.
It found that a group of common items, such as drinks bottles, cans, cartons, food wrappers, and packaging from smoking and vaping, make up nearly 20% of all litter recorded. Among these, the most frequent were metal drinks cans, small plastic drinks bottles, and confectionery wrappers.
The data also shows that these items are more likely to appear in town centres, densely populated residential areas, and places considered more deprived (according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation).
By understanding which items are most common and where they are found, the report provides a strong basis for monitoring progress and shaping future policies to reduce litter and create cleaner, healthier streets for everyone.
