From: "Monica Wilson" <mwilson@no.address> Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 15:08:11 -0700
This is a great article making a case for extended producer responsibility
(EPR) for products, especially automobiles, and shows how important it is to build networks that include diverse interests and influences in campaigns to reduce the volume and toxicity of waste.
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http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030924/COBOYD2 4/TPEnvironment/
Globe and Mail September 24, 2003
Look who's driving the green agenda
By DAVID BOYD Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - Page A25
Auto workers are not generally thought of as being in the vanguard of environmental protection. So it's a surprise that the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) is proposing one of Canada's most promising revolutions in environmental policy in years.
The CAW is calling on Canadian governments to apply a policy called "extended producer responsibility" to the auto industry. Also known as take-back legislation, this policy holds manufacturers accountable for the goods that they produce for the product's entire lifetime. This means that owners can return vehicles to the manufacturer at the end of their useful life. Instead of cars winding up in unsightly junkyards, landfills or incinerators, their manufacturers would be obliged to take them back.
The beauty of this concept is that it provides manufacturers with a powerful incentive to redesign their products so that they can be disassembled into parts that are reused, remanufactured, or recycled. Ideally, all vehicle parts will have some valuable future use, so far less waste will enter landfills or incinerators, decreasing the burden on municipalities and taxpayers. As well, hazardous materials such as lead and polyvinyl chloride could be designed out of the vehicle production process.
Another key benefit of take-back legislation is that it results in the much more efficient use of energy and resources through recycling and reuse. Take-back laws generally require that 85 to 95 per cent of the weight of products be recycled or reused.
By lobbying for take-back legislation, the CAW is merely demonstrating enlightened self-interest. The CAW envisions a vehicle disassembly plant beside every assembly plant. Even if car sales decline in an environmentally friendly future dominated by public transit, cyclists, pedestrians, and tele-commuting, there would still be jobs for auto workers.
Extended producer-responsibility legislation was first introduced in Germany in 1991; since then, other nations including Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands have followed suit, with the European Union passing a regional directive in 2000. The results are impressive. Companies such as Volvo, Mercedes and BMW have redesigned the vehicles they sell in the European market in innovative ways, saving money, reducing waste and creating additional jobs for auto workers. Some countries have extended take-back laws to cover large home appliances, office equipment, and electrical and electronic equipment.
Extended producer responsibility is part of a new way of thinking about how goods and services should be designed for a sustainable 21st-century economy. Almost half of New Zealand's local governments have strategies aimed at eliminating municipal waste by 2015. Toronto has made a similar pledge. Innovative corporations like Ikea, Xerox, 3M, and Interface Flooring are also embracing the concept of eliminating waste and pollution.
Ikea wanted to increase sales of its compact fluorescent light bulbs, which use 80 per cent less energy than conventional bulbs and last eight to 10 times as long. But compact fluorescent bulbs use more mercury than regular bulbs, and mercury can be environmentally harmful. So Ikea encourages customers to return used bulbs to its stores. Now 98 to 99 per cent of the mercury from the used bulbs is recovered for new bulbs.
It is possible to envision a future where all products are made of either substances that can safely biodegrade (i.e. return to nature, and nourish the soil) or be endlessly reused in our techno-industrial society. In a sense, this means redesigning industrial economies to mimic the genius of the natural world, where millions of years of evolution (or as author Paul Hawken calls it, "design experience") have resulted in waste-free systems.
Love them or hate them, motor vehicles are with us for the long haul. But, as the CAW recognizes, we can minimize their destructive impact. Bringing extended producer-responsibility legislation to the auto industry could lead to broader application across wide sectors of our economy. Ottawa should move take-back legislation out of the showroom now -- and onto the road for a test drive.
David Richard Boyd is an environmental lawyer, professor, and author of Unnatural Law: Rethinking Canadian Environmental Law and Policy.
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