Taking it Back: The Next Generation of 3R’s

Conference Report, Sept 20-21/2002

“Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy principle to promote total lifecycle environment improvements of product systems by extending responsibilities of the manufacturer of the product to various parts of the product’s life cycle, and especially to the take-back, recovery and final disposal of the product.”
--Thomas Lindhqvist

In 1990, Thomas Lindhqvist, an expert in product design lobbied EPR to the Swedish Ministry of Environment as method to reduce Europe’s expanding amounts of hazardous waste and limited landfill real estate. Thomas realized that manufacturers have the best position to influence the environmental and social impacts of their products during the design phase. EPR policies hold manufactures accountable to life cycle of the product, which will in turn drive them to make design changes.

When you give the manufactures responsibility for their product waste streams, they will be forced to phase out hazardous material, design the product for disassembly and reuse and recycle materials in the product.

With our present system much of our waste management programs are funded by taxpayers through our municipal governments. EPR will shift the burden from the taxpayer to the manufacturer and will allow the excess resources to be used for other programs that can benefit the whole community.

GM generates approximately 257 pounds of waste per vehicle in North America, down from 473 ponds per vehicle in 1997. Their goal is to lower that number to 235 pounds by the end of the year. These numbers include all the waste generated at GM plants divided by the number of vehicles produced. The numbers do not take into account any waste generated by parts or material suppliers. The end-of life-vehicle as a junked car is about 75% recycled. What can’t be reused is called shredder residue (fluff) and it ends up in landfills or is burned. The materials present in the “fluff” are asbestos, cadmium, chlorinated solvents, chlofluorocarbons (CFCs), hexavalent chromium, lead, mercury and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). These chemicals are known to cause health problems for our surrounding communities by being released to our air, water and soil. Much of the 25% left from the vehicle are the plastic, glass, rubber, textiles, fluids and paint.

What is needed is government regulations that are enforced to ensure that manufactures have responsibility for the end of life products and also establish material restrictions and recycling/reuse targets. Voluntary programs have had very limited success.

In September 2000, the European Union (EU) adopted the End of Life (ELV) Directive, which establishes producer responsibility for the management of ELVs. It sets increased recycling requirements and calls for the phase out of certain heavy metals like the ones listed earlier. As of July 2002 automakers are responsible for ensuring that the consumer will not have to pay for the cost of the vehicle to be recycled. As of January 2006, reuse and recovery of the end-of-life vehicles must be 85% by weight, and recycling and reuse must be 80% by weight. As of January 2015, the reuse and recovery rate must be increased by 95% by weight and the recycling and reuse must be 85% by weight. Automotive manufacturers such as BMW, Ford and Mercedes must comply with EPR legislation in Germany, Sweden, Netherlands and Denmark. Nick DeCarlo, National CAW Rep. for Health & Safety and Environment spoke about a flaw in the ELV directive, and it is that the manufactures do not have to take it back to one of its own facilities to be disassembled.

We need to ensure that CAW members maintain this labour intensive work. It would be in the union’s best interest to analyze and lobby government to make changes to any new EPR legislation and contractual language to ensure that the producer’s responsibility for the recycling of vehicles is maintained by our CAW workers. Just imagine an auto disassembly plant beside an auto assembly plant.

CAW Environmental Activist believe, that with the right movement to lobby government to enact EPR legislation in Canada, we can turn EPR into a windfall for the labour movement and our environment.

Dave Renaud,
President CAW Durham Regional Environment Council,
CAW Environment Representative, Oshawa Autoplex

Here are other links to E.P.R.

A message from past CAWWREC President Ken Bondy:

How to Protect Jobs and Our Environment