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Circular Economy 2024, 3(1): 100076 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cec.2024.100076
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 06 February 2024

Extended producer responsibility to reconstruct the circular value chain

Show Author's Information Xin Tong( ),  Tao Wang,  Jinling Li,  Xuejun Wang
College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Keywords:
Circular economy, Extended producer responsibility, Lifecycle perspective, Eco-design, Circular value chain
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Tong X, Wang T, Li J, et al. Extended producer responsibility to reconstruct the circular value chain. Circular Economy, 2024, 3(1): 100076. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cec.2024.100076
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Abstract Full text About this article

This research explores the role of extended producer responsibility (EPR) as an enabler of circular value chain in the Chinese context. The driven forces and key stakeholders were identified to extend producer responsibility in developing the national-circular-economy strategies. An evaluation system was established to link the eco-design strategy of the producer with the downstream-recycling performance of products. The eco-design information was retrieved from the self-disclosure information in the sustainable development report of producers. The downstream-waste-flow information comes from multiple platforms of reuse and recycling companies. The aim of reforming the EPR system is to establish an open forum for competition and cooperation among different stakeholders to achieve a continuously-improving target of circularity and life cycle environmental performance of the products. With the evaluation results, the producers are encouraged to fully explore all opportunities in the circular value chain instead of focusing only on the final disposal or disassembly of waste. The conclusion suggests that EPR policies should break the restrictions on eco-design and innovation in business models by creating and capturing values of circularity along with the world's collective climate change mitigation efforts.


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About this article

Extended producer responsibility to reconstruct the circular value chain

Show Author's information Xin Tong( ), Tao Wang, Jinling Li, Xuejun Wang
College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Abstract

This research explores the role of extended producer responsibility (EPR) as an enabler of circular value chain in the Chinese context. The driven forces and key stakeholders were identified to extend producer responsibility in developing the national-circular-economy strategies. An evaluation system was established to link the eco-design strategy of the producer with the downstream-recycling performance of products. The eco-design information was retrieved from the self-disclosure information in the sustainable development report of producers. The downstream-waste-flow information comes from multiple platforms of reuse and recycling companies. The aim of reforming the EPR system is to establish an open forum for competition and cooperation among different stakeholders to achieve a continuously-improving target of circularity and life cycle environmental performance of the products. With the evaluation results, the producers are encouraged to fully explore all opportunities in the circular value chain instead of focusing only on the final disposal or disassembly of waste. The conclusion suggests that EPR policies should break the restrictions on eco-design and innovation in business models by creating and capturing values of circularity along with the world's collective climate change mitigation efforts.

Keywords: Circular economy, Extended producer responsibility, Lifecycle perspective, Eco-design, Circular value chain

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Publication history

Received: 10 September 2023
Revised: 19 January 2024
Accepted: 22 January 2024
Published: 06 February 2024
Issue date: March 2024

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s).

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support from NSFC-NWO joint funded program ‘Towards Inclusive Circular Economy: Transnational Network for Wise-waste Cities (IWWCs)’ (NSFC project number: 72061137071; NWO project number: 482.19.608) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China on Solid Wastes Recycling (2018YFC1902701).

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This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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