Ministry of Environment
Product Stewardship
Product Stewardship in B.C. (History)
- Introduction
- History of Product Stewardship in B.C.
- Product Stewardship Timeline
- Industry Product Stewardship Business Plan
- Product Stewardship Regulatory Continuum 1990-2001
Introduction
In British Columbia, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) (formerly referred to as Industry Product Stewardship) is an environmental policy approach in which the producer’s responsibility for reducing environmental impact and managing the product is extended across the whole life cycle of the product, from selection of materials and design to its end-of-life.
The term Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) was first used in Europe and described the international community’s efforts to achieve waste reduction and taxpayer relief world-wide. EPR is now present at a federal level in Canada and increasingly at the provincial level. Until 2004, the term used in British Columbia was Industry Product Stewardship (IPS) instead of EPR. In order to be consistent with Canadian and international usage, the Ministry now uses the term EPR.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility, physical and/or financial, for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle. There are two key features of EPR policy: (1) the shifting of responsibility (physically and/or economically, fully or partially) upstream to the producer and away from municipalities, and (2) to provide incentives to producers to take environmental considerations into the design of the product. EPR programs in British Columbia are primarily based on this definition, which is an expression of the polluter-pay principle, for products that contribute to the municipal solid waste stream. The OECD also identified a number of guiding principles for EPR as stated on Environment Canada’s EPR web site.
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