A new era in producer responsibility is beginning

The book you ordered online has arrived and now you want to recycle the cardboard box. You take it to local recycling point, but who is actually responsible for organising the recycling facilities and operations? Many people assume that the local municipals are responsible, but in most cases it is actually the company which produced the product. This is called producer responsibility.

“It is common to see producer responsibility for tyres, batteries, consumer electronics and packages,” says Teemu Virtanen, Senior Advisor at Pirkanmaa ELY-Centre. “The companies that produce or import the items are responsible for financing and organising waste management. In practice, companies can’t do it alone, so they use producer organisations.”

UPM takes producer responsibility seriously
UPM is committed to supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and has identified the goals and respective targets where it can have the biggest positive impact through its operations, products, and solutions, or where it aims to minimise any negative impact. The company considers producer responsibility to be part of the SDG 12, with Responsible consumption and production, that being one of the six chosen UPM´s focus goals. The practicalities of producer responsibility can vary from country to country, so UPM is active in each local system. For example, in Finland UPM is a customer of the Finnish Packaging Recycling organisation RINKI.

“Producer responsibility in Finland is based on national legislation which derives from EU waste legislation. Failure to fulfil these obligations may lead to a fine,” explains Heli Satuli, Communications Manager at RINKI.

She says that the law requires a company to take care of the collection and recycling of all product packaging, such as plastic, carton, glass, metal, or wood packaging. In addition, it must compile yearly reports for the Finnish authorities and educate Finnish customers about how to recycle the materials. RINKI discharges these obligations on behalf of producer organisations.
much more at source: https://www.upm.com/articles/responsibility/21/a-new-era-in-producer-responsibility-is-beginning/

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