Combating plastic litter on land and in water is one of the major challenges of global environmental protection. As part of its plastics strategy, the EU will adopt a directive to restrict the use of several disposable plastic products and fishing gear. On behalf of the German Environment Agency, Ecologic Institute and s.Pro assessed legal questions and investigated appropriate measures to implement the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the Member States for selected product groups.

EPR obliges manufacturers of products to assume financial and/or organisational responsibility for the management of the waste resulting from their products. This concerns the collection, transport and treatment of waste and requires cleaning and awareness-raising measures. The project focused on the questions which measures appear suitable to implement an extended producer responsibility scheme and who should bear the costs.