Proceedings of the 4th World Conference on Climate Change and Global Warming
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Impact of Implementing the Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) On Circular Economy in Morocco
Abir Dahani, Fatima Zohra El Wardi, Chouaib Benqlilou, Meryem Kitane
ABSTRACT:
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy approach based on transferring waste management costs responsibility from municipalities to producers.This paradigm shift requires i) active participation of all stakeholders: producers/importers, suppliers, distributors and retailers, consumers, groups of municipalities and recyclers; ii) establishment of a reliable and credible producer responsibility organisation with stable funding through the eco-tax paid by obligated companies; iii) setting up of specific evolving targets in order to measure the success of the system, vi) setting up of control mechanisms to ensure that producers comply with regulations. This study aims to assess the socio-economic and environmental impact of the implementation of EPR system, focusing in particular on packaging EPR on a Moroccan scale. The annual amount of household packaging waste (HPW) is estimated at 1,16 million tons. The results generated by incorporating the EPR system indicate a material saving of around 445.903 t/year. This saving is mainly due to the avoided cost of landfilling and the loss of revenue resulting from the recyclable material, amounting to 482 MDh/year. Therefore, the economic savings are up to 455 Dhs /ton of recyclable HPW and 2.894 jobs nationwide are provided. Since the EPR system will both help to reduce the GHG emissions and prevent ecosystem degradation (i.e., soil, groundwater, etc.), it will provide an environmental saving of 196.4 million Dhs. This research shows that packaging EPR system improves the financial and operational viability of household waste management resulting in higher collection and recycling rates.
keywords: Environmental impact, extended producer responsibility, packaging waste, recycling, socioeconomic impact