Designing Extended Producer Responsibility for ASEAN: Lessons from Country Experiences and Consumer Perspectives (Offline)
Plastic waste has become one of the most pressing environmental challenges in the region. ASEAN Member States, together with China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, account for about one-third of global plastic use. In 2022, these countries and economies released an estimated 8.4 million tonnes of plastic into the environment, representing more than one-third of the global total. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) has become a central policy response to plastic pollution in Southeast Asia. Under EPR, producers are held financially and/or operationally responsible for the collection, sorting, recycling or disposal of the products and packaging they place on the market. At the regional level, the Bangkok Declaration on Combating Marine Debris (2019), the ASEAN Regional Action Plan for Combating Marine Debris (2021–2025), and the Framework for Circular Economy for the ASEAN Economic Community (2021) have provided a shared basis for action, with the latter identifying EPR as a priority instrument.
Across ASEAN, however, EPR systems vary widely. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand are moving from voluntary towards mandatory schemes, Viet Nam operates a hybrid system, and the Philippines has established a mandatory framework under its EPR Act of 2022. These differences reflect not only varying stages of policy development but also differences in institutional capacity, waste management infrastructure, and social conditions. Despite these variations, countries face common challenges, including bringing small and medium-sized enterprises into EPR schemes, integrating informal waste workers into EPR financing mechanisms, encouraging upstream product redesign, and ensuring the transparent governance of EPR funds.
Research and policymaking on EPR have so far focused mainly on producers and governments. Yet EPR also raises a fundamental question: how should the costs of managing plastic waste be shared? In practice, producers may pass some of their EPR costs on to consumers through higher prices. Public willingness to bear these additional costs, as well as public preferences regarding how EPR funds should be used, therefore matters in determining whether EPR systems are perceived as fair and can be sustained over time.
This book examines these issues through country case studies of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam, alongside a consumer survey conducted in all five countries.
ERIA and the University of the Philippines will jointly launch ERIA’s new publication, Extended Producer Responsibilities in ASEAN: Policy Design, Stakeholder Dynamics, and Consumer Perspectives. The event will present the book’s main findings and bring together policymakers, industry representatives, academics, and civil society representatives from across ASEAN to discuss how EPR systems can be designed to suit the national contexts of individual countries. Hosting the launch in Manila, in partnership with the University of the Philippines, provides an opportunity to share the findings with policymakers and other stakeholders in the region and to foster dialogue among countries at different stages of EPR development.
Agenda and Programme