Abstract
This chapter focuses on the fundamentally different approaches to the management of product waste streams in the United States and the European Union (EU). The guiding concept underpinning US regulation, that of “good product stewardship,” calls upon not only producers, but all actors associated with production and consumption, to share responsibility for the safe, environmentally friendly disposal of the products they handle (Toffel, 2002). In contrast, regulation developed in the EU dating back to the late 1990s is predicated on the “producer pays” concept. The fundamental idea behind this approach is that regulation must create incentives for producers to design products that incorporate fewer hazardous materials and that lend themselves more readily to environmentally sound disposal.
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Notes
US EPA, “Product Stewardship”; accessed at www.epa.gov/epr/about/index.htm on February 12, 2007.
See Chaz Miller, “States Lead the Way: Pioneering Recycling Efforts in the U.S.,” Waste Management World (Sep/Oct 2006): 35–38; accessed at http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/display/article-display/273718/articles/waste-management-world/volume-7/issue-5/recycling-special/states-lead-the-way-pio-neering-recycling-efforts-in-the-us.html on January 10, 2011.
See Julie C. Becker, “A ‘Cradle to Cradle’ Debate in Congress,” EPA Journal Vol. 18 (July/August 1992): 35–37.
For additional information about the materials in end-of-life autos and their treatment, see N. Kanari, J. L. Pineau, and S. Shallari, “End-of-Life Vehicle Recycling in the European Union,” Journal of Metallurgy (August 2003), online version, at http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/J0M/0308/Kanari-0308.html.
Voluntary partnerships include a cooperative research and devel¬opment agreement between a group of auto manufacturers, the US Department of Energy, and the American Plastics Council designed to address some of the recycling problems posed by ELVs. On the issue of preemptive action, see Gary A. Davis, “Automotive Take-Back and Recycling Programs,” case study prepared for Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies, University of Tennessee, section 5.2.4.; accessed at http://www.p2pays.org/ref/09/08872/eprn5-8.pdf on August 19, 2010.
Michael Mann, “EU Car Recycling Law in Doubt as Industry Stalls,” Reuters News Service, June 17, 1999.
For the Council’s July 1999 common position, see http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/gena/10390.en9.htm#_Toc457986427. For the conflict within the Council caused by the German position and the Germany-UK trade-off, see Renée Cordes, “Finns Vow to Push for Deal on Car Recycling,” European Voice (July 1, 1999); accessed at http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/finns-vow-to-push-for-deal-on-car-recycling/38939.aspx on February 12, 2007. Ironically, Finland was later one of the governments against which the European Commission brought a case before the ECJ in 2003 for failing to fulfill its obligation to adopt provisions to imple¬ment the ELV rules by April 21, 2002, as required by the direc¬tive. See Case C-293/03, Commission of the European Communities v. Republic of Finland, OJC 213 of September 6, 2003, p. 18.
See Anne Rasmussen, “The Role of the European Commission in Co-Decision—A Strategic Facilitator Operating in a Situation of Structural Disadvantage,” European Integration online Papers (EIoP) Vol. 7, No. 10 (2003), http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/2003-010a.htm.
These costs include removal and fire department response to the common practice of burning abandoned cars. See Paul Brown, “Illegal Dumping Fear Over Scrapped Cars: EU Rule Means Increased Cost for Getting Rid of Old Bangers,” The Guardian, February 2, 2002.
On the problem of abandoned vehicles in the United Kingdom, also see Daniel Attwood, “Motorists Will Not Pay for Disposal of Old Cars,” The Irish Times, September 21, 2005 (Motors section, p. 1), which reports that “[i]n 2000, 23 per cent of ELVs—or 350,000 cars—were found abandoned in Britain”; both accessed via Lexis-Nexis Academic at http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/ on August 12, 2009. The Department of Trade and Industry esti¬mated that there were 290,000 cars abandoned in 2001/2 and 310,000 in 2002/3. See European Parliament (2007: 53).
David Gow, “Industry Pleads for Delay Over eu Car Law,” The Guardian, September 3, 2001; accessed via Lexis-Nexis Academic at http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/hottopics/lnaca-demic/ on August 12, 2009.
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© 2012 Mitchell P. Smith
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Smith, M.P. (2012). Recycling of End-of-Life Vehicles: “Good Product Stewardship” in the United States; Producer Pays in the EU. In: Environmental and Health Regulation in the United States and the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230337763_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230337763_4
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