Extended Producer Responsibility – EPR
Tires are an example of products subject to extended producer responsibility in many industrialised countries.
First formally outlined in an internal Swedish government report in 1990, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is meant to shift financial responsibility for end-of-life disposal to product manufacturers. The idea is to motivate them to improve their products and packaging design that can be reused and recycled.
Brand owners must pay costs associated with tracking, managing, and recycling or dispose of packaging after their products have been used. Typically EPR is implemented through take-back legislation that requires manufacturers to recover their packaging after consumption. Some producers pay a fee to organisations that collect and recycle the packaging. Container-deposit systems that some U.S. states have for soda bottles are one example of an EPR initiative.
Waste to Energy – WTE
In addition to the EPR laws passed by several European nations, a process called waste-to-energy (WTE) is also diverting plastics to power plants for use as fuel for heat and electricity.
In Europe, an estimated 25.2 million metric tonnes of post-consumer plastic was discarded in 2012, according to the manufacturers association PlasticsEurope. Of that amount, 26% was recycled, 36% was recovered for fuel, and 38% went to landfills.
In 2012 the United States produced approximately 29 million metric tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste but recycled only 9% of it and used perhaps 16% for fuel.
(Source: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/123-a90)
For more comprehensive data visit EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY ALLIANCE the website You can read more about EPR on Wikipedia here and in an article in the Guardian here.