The Sustainable Waste Management Act 2022 Section 13 requires every producer to bear extended producer responsibility obligations to reduce pollution and environmental impacts of the products they introduce into the Kenyan market and waste arising therefrom. Every producer shall fulfill their extended producer responsibility obligations individually or collectively in a compliance scheme.
The EPR Regulations 2024 Section 17 stipulates that each producer responsibility organization shall, at an agreed upon fee, be responsible for executing extended producer responsibility obligations on behalf of its members (producers). The EPR regulations provides a criteria for calculation of the EPR fee in section 5, 17 and 18 which can be summarized below:
| Parameter | Provision in the EPR regulations 2024 | Remarks |
| Quantity | S18.1a | Weight, number of items introduced in the market |
| Recyclability | S18.1c | Recyclable products/ packaging may be cheaper |
| Recoverability | S18.1c | Material that is easy to recover could be cheaper |
| Segregation | S18.1b | Material that is easy to segregate could be cheaper |
| Collection | S5.1g | Waste pickers offer collection service and need to be compensated |
| Sorting | S5.1g | Materials that are easy to sort are cheaper |
| Storage | S5.1g | Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) are licensed by NEMA as waste transfer and aggregation point |
| Transportation | S5.1g | NEMA licensed transporters to be engaged |
| Recycling | S5.1g | How easy is it to recycle? |
| Incineration | S5.1g | Energy is used to burn the product/packaging |
| Residual disposal | S5.1g | County or private landfills fee for final disposal |
| Market development for secondary raw materials | S17b | To be identified and developed to receive recycled products |
| Research | S17c | Research and innovation costs for emerging technologies for material recovery, removal of pollutants. |
| Product life cycle assessment | S5.1i | Fee for studies on product life cycle to enhance environmental sustainability. |
| Circular economy initiatives | S5.1j | Cost for initiatives to reduce impact of their products on health and environment. |
| Public awareness | S5.1h | Cost for running public awareness campaigns on proper handling of post-consumer products and packaging waste. |
| Disruptive additives | S18.1e | Cost for special treatment of hazardous toxins and disruptive additives before recycling, disposal |
| Reporting | S5.1e, S19.4 | Periodic reporting to NEMA and County Government, PRO members |
| Administrative costs | S5.1b,c | To run the PRO (e.g. staff expenses, operational costs) |
As shown in Table 1 above, determination of the EPR fee is an interplay of diverse aspects which could be grouped together into themes such as product quantity, product chemistry, waste handling (logistics), waste processing, waste disposal, and the associated enablers as summarized in Table 2 below.
| Quantity / Volume | Product Chemistry | Waste handling (logistics) | Waste processing | Waste disposal | EPR Scheme Enablers |
| Weight, numbers, litres | Recyclability | Recoverability | Recycling | Incineration | Research |
| Disruptive additives | Waste picker (collection service) | Reuse | Residual disposal (landfilling) | Market development | |
| Sorting | Refurbish | Product life cycle assessment | |||
| Storage | Circular economy initiatives | ||||
| Transport | Public awareness | ||||
| Reporting | |||||
| Administration |
These thematic areas could be considered as the upstream, midstream and downstream aspects of waste management which integrates the entire waste flow. Each thematic aspect can be explained as follows:-
- Product quantity – What product and how much?
- Product chemistry – What is the product and packaging made of?
- Waste handling (logistics) – How product and packaging is moved from point of generation to point of processing and disposal.
- Waste processing – How are valuable raw materials recovered?
- Waste disposal – How are the non recyclable fractions decontaminated and disposed?
- Enablers – What initiatives or activities are needed to make waste collection, transportation, processing, and disposal possible?
The EPR fee can be deduced by addition of costs drawn from each thematic area. Hence the general formula for calculating the EPR fee in Kenya could be simplified as follows:-
EPR fee = Cost of (waste handling + waste processing/product chemistry + waste disposal + Enablers) x Quantity.
The EPR fee is meant to finance waste management services. Compliance with EPR regulations entails paying up fully to the PRO for entire quantity of products declared as calculated using this formula. This will ensure that adequate funds are available to implement all EPR obligations by the Producer and the PRO.
It is evident that the EPR fee to be paid to PROs will differ between different producers as each product will be assessed at its own merit. Those products that are not recyclable or have disruptive additives may require to be incinerated or disposed in the landfills and this may attract higher EPR fee. That’s why the EPR Regulations 2024 Section 5.1f requires producers to design products and packaging materials that minimize waste, facilitate reuse, recycling, recovery and use of
secondary raw materials where possible and are environmentally friendly at their end of life. Increased costs in this regard as calculated using this formula serves as a deterrent and a tool to propel transition towards ecofriendly products and packaging.
This formula is crucial in enforcement of EPR obligations in Kenya since Section 16.1f of the regulations require the PROs to submit to NEMA an EPR Plan whereby they show evidence of modulation of extended producer responsibility membership fees and parameters based on environmental sustainability criteria. Hence the parameters in this formula need to be costed for each product to assure full payment to address environmental sustainability footprint.
The PROs are also expected to submit to NEMA a verifiable paid-up membership list (section 16.1h). In the past, we have had instances where producers made EPR a fallacy through registering with the PRO but fail to pay the EPR fee. Some PROs charged fees arbitrarily which failed to compensate for full ecological footprint. The lack of a EPR fee calculation formula contributed to inadequate funds for managing waste at post consumer stage.
This new dispensation of extended producer responsibility promises to generate funds for waste management through the Polluter Pay Principle concept as determined by circularity of the product or packaging involved. This EPR fee calculation formula is a wake up call to all producers to relook at their product designs and avoid use of toxic disruptive additives if they are to remain competitive in the market.
References
Government of Kenya (2022) Sustainable Waste Management Act. Government Printers, Nairobi.
Government of Kenya (2024) Sustainable Waste Management (Extended Producer Responsibility) Regulations. Government Printers, Nairobi.