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Working With The Community
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Avoiding Waste

Next time you purchase a product why not ask what happens to it at the end of its life?

Leichhardt Council supports Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR provides the incentive to producers to design products for longevity, reuse, remanufacturing and recycling by making them responsible for their products throughout the entire life of the product. EPR schemes include up-front levies, deposit-refunds, such as Container Deposits and physical take-back of products eg for electronic wastes (e-waste) i.e. computers, TV’s; batteries. 

 

EPR effectively transfers the responsibility for post-consumer products from ratepayers and councils to producers and consumers (rather than a blanket cost to the whole community) placing sustainable product design back in the hands of those who are most instrumental in determining the environmental impacts of products i.e. those who design and produce them in the first place. Many consumer items are problematic for Council collections, often requiring specific expertise and high financial cost for the recovery and/or management of valuable or hazardous materials eg computers, TV’s. International experience shows that EPR schemes have been successful in preventing waste generation at the source, via environmentally-compatible product design and facilitating efficient product or material recovery, reuse and recycling.

Ultimately, EPR schemes aim to achieve sustainable resource management and are imperative to any initiative towards zero waste.

Click here for more information on EPR.