Operational perspectives on extended producer responsibility for durable and consumable products

Abstract

This thesis consists of three essays that contribute to the understanding of the economic implications of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for certain durable (e.g. electronics) and consumable (e.g. pharmaceuticals) products from an operational perspective. In the first essay, we investigate the effect of EPR-based policy on a durable good producer’s secondary market strategy. Our analysis uncovers possible strategic approach of durable good producers to EPR obligations, which may result in unintended outcomes. We provide insights into how to set EPR obligations to avoid these adverse outcomes. In the second essay, we examine the operational details of market-based EPR implementation on the ground. We analyze whether the advocated premises of the marked-based approach hold by focusing on the Minnesota Electronics Recycling Act. Based on evaluation reports and stakeholder interviews, we find that the Minnesota Act achieves the premises of the market-based approach, but this occurs at the expense of several unintended outcomes, following unforeseen market dynamics and associated stakeholder interactions. In the third essay, we explore how the EPR-based policies can be effectively operationalized for managing pharmaceutical overage by analyzing the interactions between major stakeholders and moderating factors for these interactions. We demonstrate that the preferred policy depends on the healthcare and externality characteristics of the medicine together with collection-related requirements. Additionally, we investigate the perspectives of pharmaceutical stakeholders on the policy choice and identify the influential factors in this context.