Over the past two decades governments around the world have been
experimenting with a new strategy for managing waste. By making
producers responsible for their products when they become
wastes, policy makers seek to significantly increase the
recycling-and recyclability-of computers, packaging,
automobiles, and household hazardous wastes such as batteries,
used oil motor, and leftover paint-and save money in the
process. This strategy, known as extended producer
responsibility (EPR), is the subject of a new special feature in
Yale University’s Journal of Industrial Ecology. The special
feature examines the use of EPR across diverse scales-from
countries to provinces and states-and investigates work underway
in the U.S., the European Union, Canada, China, Brazil and the
State of Washington. The application of EPR to e-waste is a
particular focus of the research in the special feature. The
Journal of Industrial Ecology is a bimonthly peer-reviewed
scientific journal, owned by Yale University, published by Wile