Category: Opinion

VAT and EPR Regulations: A recipe for waste picker exclusion

By Kolekt Director, Thierry Sanders. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes, designed to make manufacturers shoulder the burden of managing their products’ post-consumer fate, are increasingly seen as a vital tool in the fight against the global waste crisis. Yet, in many emerging economies, an unlikely antagonist is undermining their effectiveness: Value Added Tax (VAT). This seemingly innocuous […]

Read more...

EPR Focus: Should EPR be a top-down affair, orchestrated by government decree, or a bottom-up initiative driven by industry itself?

Whose Rubbish Is It Anyway? The Battle for Control of Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations. By Kolekt Director, Thierry Sanders. The bins overflow, the landfills bulge, and the tide of discarded packaging, electronics, and textiles continues to rise. In response, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) – a system holding producers accountable for the post-consumer fate of their […]

Read more...
Different recycling types

21 critical decision points governments must address to optimise EPR regulations

The global spotlight on national waste legislation is intensifying, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) stands at the forefront. EPR offers a compelling solution for financing sustainable waste management, embodying the ‘polluter pays’ principle. Simply put, EPR mandates that producers, importers, and brands take responsibility for the lifecycle of their products, either by directly managing waste […]

Read more...

EPR Focus: How to involve informal collectors

By Maria Accioly, Pedro Succar and Thierry Sanders   Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations are reshaping global waste management. While approximately 40 countries have implemented EPR, significantly increasing waste management budgets, a stark disparity exists. About 150 countries, many low-income, lack EPR and rely heavily on an estimated 20 million informal waste pickers.  KOLEKT has […]

Read more...
plastic bottles

EPR Focus: Mandatory vs. Voluntary Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

As of today, some 40 nations have placed the responsibility for the collection of packaging waste or the payment of the waste collection costs with the companies that sell the products and packaging. This regulation, called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), is probably the most effective step taken in decades to generate more funds for waste […]

Read more...

EPR Focus: Elevating Extended Producer Responsibility beyond collections

The global spotlight on national waste legislation is intensifying, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) stands at the forefront. EPR offers a compelling solution for financing sustainable waste management, embodying the ‘polluter pays’ principle. Simply put, EPR mandates that producers, importers, and brands take responsibility for the lifecycle of their products, either by directly managing waste […]

Read more...

How Finance Fuels a Just Transition

This Saturday, 1 March, we mark World Waste Pickers Day—a moment to celebrate the unsung heroes of global recycling systems. Waste pickers, who collect and process 60% of the world’s recycled materials, are environmental stewards and economic innovators, yet their contributions remain undervalued. At BVRio, we champion their role as catalysts for a just transition, […]

Read more...

Brazil’s Environment Ministry to enforce solutions for product waste

In an article published last week by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, reporter Joana Cunha interviewed the Secretary for the Urban Environment, Adalberto Maluf, about the Ministry of the Environment’s initiative to strengthen the regulation of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) model in Brazil. The initiative is seen as a crucial step towards […]

Read more...

Approaches to sustainability in Brazilian agriculture: Combining environmental conservation with economic growth

PlanaFlor, a unique and strategic plan for implementing the Forest Code, stands out as it complements Brazil’s recently launched National Programme for Converting Degraded Pastures (PNCPD). This alignment is not just crucial, it’s a game-changer, ensuring that the broad goals set by the PNCPD for pasture recovery are not just met, but exceeded. PlanaFlor’s detailed […]

Read more...

How the private sector can support the Amazon alliance to end deforestation

This week the Leaders of State of the eight countries that share the Amazon Cooperation Treaty (ACT) signed the Belém Declaration, a historic statement in order to face the challenge of protecting the integrality of the Amazon region, fighting poverty and inequalities, “with the purpose of gathering efforts to promote sustainable development that is harmonious, […]

Read more...