EPR extends the traditional environmental responsibilities that
producers and distributors have previously been assigned to
include management at the post-consumer stage. They must
either take back spent products and manage them through reuse,
recycling or in energy production, or delegate this responsibility to
a third party, a so-called Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO),
which is paid by the producer for spent-product management. In
this way, EPR shifts responsibility for waste from government to
private industry, making it mandatory for producers, importers
and/or sellers to internalize waste management costs in their
product prices. The worldwise organizations, which are working
on the PRO policy include the Duales System Deutschland (DSD) in
Germany, VALPAK in United Kingdom, El-Kretsen AB in Sweden
and the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) in
United States are examples of such organizations, which are
emerging in many countries along with the rapid spread of EPR
programmes [32].