As many cities in the Asia-Pacific region are becoming global production centers and facing increasing domestic demand, it is ever more urgent for the region to improve resource efficiency, prevent pollution, mitigate climate change and transition to Circular Economy.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is being increasingly recognized as a central element and important tool for achieving these goals. It encourages better product design and helps to reduce the environmental impact throughout the whole product life cycle. By extending producers’ economical responsibility to the end-of-life stage, EPR schemes can reduce municipalities’ economic burdens on managing waste as well. In practice, EPR defines the legal and economical responsibilities of producers on managing their products after becoming wastes, these include products design, waste collection, pre-treatment (e.g., sorting, dismantling or de pollution); preparation for reuse; recovery (e.g., recycling and energy recovery), or final disposal according to set targets.
Objectives: The objectives of the regional workshop are:
- to learn how EPR schemes are designed and utilized to support the promotion of circular economy;
- to share experiences in EU as well as in the Asia-Pacific region;
- to discuss how experience from EPR schemes can shared (beyond the workshop); and
- to identify and propose a concrete set of actions to be taken when getting back to the countries to promote EPR and circular economy.
Participants: Government representatives of line ministries from Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam, UNDP country offices and RBAP colleagues, EPR experts, national municipal and producers’ organizations, resource persons from Avfall Sverige (the Swedish Waste Management Association) and other agencies.
Date and time: 9:00 – 17:00, November 1&2, 2022
Location: VIE Hotel Bangkok – MGallery, Thailand
