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1.   Supply Chains and Extended Producer Responsibility Chris France Centre for Environmental Strategy University of Surrey Guildford

2.   CONTENTS • Recap • Legislative change • Extended Producer Responsibility • Problems of implementation • WEEE • Integrated Product Policy • Conclusions

3.   SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT • To recap…….. • - reliance on fossil energy (= global warming) • - pollution • - consuming non-renewable resources • - decouple economic activity from • environmental damage (e.g. software) • What if the rest of the world tries to • catch up?

4.   SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT • ‘Business as Usual’ CANNOT work! • Change is happening ……. • Business has to respond • (react or pro-act?)

5.   Your role • Engineers provide society what it (thinks • that it) wants - (normally involves a product!) • Your job is to satisfy society’s wants • (needs?) at a profit • ‘Environment’ is just another design • constraint (cost / manufacture / maintainability/ • quality / …….. / environment)

6.   • The benefit is delivered by the product, it • rarely is the product • For example: • Car • Mobile Phone • Benefits/costs?

7.   WHAT IS CHANGING? • Consumers • Legislation (esp. EU)

8.   CONSUMERS • Information/Pressure from NGOs • Ethical consumerism • environmental and social benefits that • cost more…?

9.   LEGISLATION • Precautionary Principle (e.g. Kyoto) • Polluter Pays Principle (EPR)

10.   Polluter Pays Principle • ‘Polluter Pays’ - “much environmental pollution, resource depletion and social cost occurs because those responsible are not those who bear the consequence (locally or globally). If the polluter, or ultimately the consumer, is made to pay for those costs, that gives incentives to reduce harm, and means that costs do not fall on society at large. It may not always be possible for everyone to bear all such costs, particularly for essential goods and services.” (www.sustainable-development.gov.uk)

11. SUPPLY CHAINS

12.   POLICY RESPONSE: LONG TERM • Move to sustainable materials and energy • Pressure from: • - legislation / fiscal measures • - customers • - scarcity(?)

13.   POLICY RESPONSE: short/med term • (Extended) Producer Responsibility • - initially concentrating on waste • management • Integrated Product Policy • - will cover whole life cycle including • ‘use’ phase

14.   Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) 'an environmental policy approach in which a producer's responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of the product's life cycle.'(OECD)

15.   WASTE HIERARCHY • Reduce • Reuse(£5billion GDP, RRF) • (Remanufacture)(ditto) • Recycle • (Recover energy)

16.   WHAT EPR AIMS TO DO … • Increase reuse and recycling to reduce • waste to landfill • Effect up-stream actions to combat • down-stream problems • Make producers financially responsible for • 'their' waste

17.   EU EPR LEGISLATION • On …… • Packaging • Vehicles • Batteries • WEEE

18.   PROBLEMS OF IMPLEMENTATION • Delay between manufacture and goods • reaching EOL • Financial coupling of today's actions with • tomorrow's costs • Individual vs collective action

19.   Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment - WEEE • Why WEEE? • A few % of waste stream but …. • 6Mt per annum in EU • x3 growth over MSW • 90% to landfill • components with toxic substances • pervasive/dynamic industry

20.   WEEE • Timetable: • August 2005: 'FOC' collection of WEEE • financed by producers • December 2006: >=4kg/head/year of • WEEE recycled • Dec 2008: review of targets

21.   WEEE - ISSUES (1) • Paying for existing products (<Aug 2005) • Orphaned products and ’free-riding’ • Collective vs individual responsibility • (loop back to product design?) • Lowest common denominator action

22.   WEEE - ISSUES (2) • Incentives to use less? • Incentives for greater product longevity? • Is the environment improved by the • legislation? (especially given the costs)

23.   EPR Conclusions • EPR is well founded in principle • Life cycle view needs to be taken, especially • in the USE phase • Incentives/penalties to move to 'service' using • less resources would be a better target

24.   INTEGRATED PRODUCT POLICY • Whole Life View • Restrictions on design/operation • Promoteutility rather than ownership?

25.   Food for thought Can companies afford to cede control of their products if they are to be held responsible for them in use/reuse/disposal?

26.   DFE strategies • Product life extension • Material life extension • Reduced use of materials (dematerialisation) • Energy efficiency • Pollution minimisation

27.   Example: Mobile Phones • raw material extraction / component manufacture account for most of the overall environmental impact • reduce use of hazardous substances (design) smaller phones • design for disassembly and reuse • develop take-back and recycling systems • more functions in a single device • (see UNEP, 2004)

28.   Disassembly • Minimise: • disassembly stages • welds and adhesives • variety and number of connectors • tools required for disassembly • Use: • re-openable snap fits for joining of plastic parts • modular designs (reuse) • advanced materials for active disassembly

29.   Corporate Social Responsibility (trailer for future lecture..) • Risk • - ‘real’ • - ‘perceived’ • ‘Social licence’ to operate • e.g. Nike / Shell / Vodaphone

30.   References The Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. Mobile Phone Partnership Initiative (2004). Guidance: Environmentally Sound Management of End of Life Mobile Phones. UNEP: Geneva. http://www.basel.int/industry/mppi4_1A_Guidance.doc Jackson,T (1996). Material Concerns: Pollution, Profit and Quality of Life. London: Routledge See www.iee.org for policy documents on environmental topics including WEEE