Global Action Partnership for EPR - Towards a common understanding of the potential of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the context of the Plastics Treaty

Side event at the margins of INC-5 in Busan, Republic of Korea - hosted by GAP for EPR

Date: 26 November 2024,
Time: 11:30-12:00 (Korean time)
Location Room 324, 3rd floor, Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO), Busan

The Global Action Partnership for EPR is an international partnership established between GIZ, OECD, UNEP and WWF. It receives circular economy support from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and it is hosted by the PREVENT Waste Alliance.

EPR has proven to be an effective tool to address plastic waste and pollution, and the tool is recognised by the majority of the delegations in the context of the intergovernmental negotiating committee. The session will offer insight into experience with implementation in both advanced and less advanced economies and discuss how the adoption of EPR could be accelerated, including by actions taken under the plastic treaty.

Furthermore, there is rising support among industry stakeholders for use of EPR to boost recycling rates, with major businesses in the packaging value chain recognising EPR as a key policy approach and a necessary part of the solution to address plastic pollution.

The session will bring different perspectives together, and will address a number of issues and questions that arose in the negotiations and intersessional work. The discussion will provide clarity on two key potential roles that EPR could play in the context of the international treaty in plastics, as:

1. A potential control measure; and
2. A means of implementation