Extended producer responsibility:
on paper and in practice
An interactive companion to the first global assessment of EPR, built on the World Bank What a Waste 3.0 database.
The landscape
Two thirds of the world now has some form of EPR. See who, for which materials, and in what legal form.
Presence is not performance
An EPR law alone is not associated with higher recycling. The link appears only where institutions can enforce it.
Development reshapes waste
Richer countries throw away exactly the materials EPR governs: the packaging-relevant share doubles with income.
The 2050 gap
A fifth of projected 2050 waste will arise where no binding EPR exists today, concentrated in five countries.
The WEEE gap
12.4% of reported e-waste arises in countries without electronics-specific EPR.
Readiness check
Pick any country and see whether the enabling conditions for EPR are in place there.
The global EPR landscape
Color the map by legal status, recycling outcomes, or governance, and click any country for its profile.
Presence is not performance
Having an EPR law is not associated with higher recycling on its own. The association appears only where institutions can enforce it, and only once waste collection is nearly universal.
Development reshapes the waste
As countries grow richer, organics shrink and the packaging-relevant share of waste (paper, plastic, glass, metal) doubles. The materials EPR governs are exactly the materials development creates.
Where the waste of 2050 will arise
Tiles are sized by projected 2050 municipal waste and colored by current EPR status. A fifth of future waste will arise where no binding EPR exists today, and nearly half of that sits in just five countries.
The WEEE gap
Electronic waste grows with income. Open circles are countries without WEEE-specific EPR; bubble area is national tonnage.
EPR readiness check
Pick a country to see whether the two enabling conditions this study identifies (institutional quality and near-universal collection) are in place, and what the model implies for the recycling margin of EPR there.
Estimates are conditional associations from a cross-section of 119 countries, not causal effects. Read them as a diagnostic, not a forecast.