Items shipped for reuse and Extended Producer Responsibility fees: a case for extending EU EPR fees to cover end-of-life activities of products shipped outside the EU

As second-hand products are exported from the EU to Africa for reuse, the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fees paid by producers to support waste management costs too often fail to follow them.

This study, produced by the Circular Innovation Lab (CIL) for the EEB, with the support of the African Circular Economy Network (ACEN) Foundation,  highlights what this means for the receiving African economies, and provides recommendations for the EU to address it, with a specific focus on the exports of used electronics and vehicles.

The study is accompanied by two case studies produced by Footprints Africa, bringing insights on the value chain for second-hand electronics in Ghana and second-hand cars in Nigeria. The case studies are available here.