Kenya Revises Draft Regulations on Extended Producer Responsibility

In December 2020, the Kenyan Ministry of Environment and Forestry issued a revised draft which further reinforces the obligation of manufacturers under the upcoming Environmental Management and Co-ordination (Extended Producer Responsibility) Regulations.

The revised draft overhauls the structure of the regulations and introduces new obligations which were not foreseen in the initial text. Firstly, the list of products subject to extended producer responsibility (EPR) in Schedule 1 has been extended to include lubricants, rubber, rubber products, leather and aluminium products. Graphic papers are no longer listed in the list of product subject to EPR. Lastly, the categories of packaging materials has been broken down to include paper and carton materials.

Perhaps most importantly, the revised text introduces new extended producer responsibility obligations. If passed, revised regulation 5 would also require producers to carry out a series of additional activities, including:

• Raising awareness on management of post-consumer products that they introduce in the market
• Carrying out product life cycle assessment in relation to their products for enhancing environmental sustainability
• Supporting establishment of markets for secondary raw materials
• Putting in place circular economy initiatives and any other measures to reduce impact of their product on health and environment; and
• Funding research and development programs on emerging technologies to improve material recovery

Similar to the initial ambition of the text, producers shall perform their obligations through individual or collective compliance schemes and obtain producer responsibility registration from the Authority. The revised draft regulations establish more detailed and differentiated registration requirements for individual compliance schemes and producer responsibility organizations (Schedule 8). Both individual and collective compliance schemes are still required to develop a two-year EPR plan and maintain updated records of products managed, ecodesign standards, contracts entered into by licensed waste service providers and recyclers, and level of performance as per the work plan. In line with the initial draft, all compliance schemes shall publish their annual extended producer responsibility reports by 31 December of every year.

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