More countries are producing e-waste laws based on the EPR or “extended producer responsibility”, which forces phone and other electronic manufacturers to be accountable for their products at end-of-life. This makes sense as manufacturers know their products best and can design them with the environment in mind and thereby put a stop to future waste problems. This can be done by eliminating unnecessary parts, reducing material usage and hazardous substances, removing unnecessary packaging, and making phones that can easily be disassembled for recycling or reuse.
In most cases, the responsibility for the manufacturer of a product ends when a consumer buys it. Due to this lack of accountability many manufacturers do not design products that can be easily recycled or disposed of.
When EPR is in place it forces manufacturers to assess the whole life cycle impact of their products.
The California Product Stewardship Council says: “Product stewardship creates incentives for producers to ‘design it green and take it back’, thereby reducing the environmental impact of product waste. By diverting products from the waste stream, we conserve resources and ultimately reduce the demand for landfills. It will relieve local governments of high waste disposal costs, by getting industry to share the burden,”.
India became the first developing country to introduce e-waste laws based on the EPR principle earlier this year, and Malaysia looks to follow suit by producing a draft regulation on waste of electrical and electronic equipment.