Extended Producer Responsibility (Kenya)
Challenge
Kenya has decided to introduce extended producer responsibility on a number of waste streams including packaging.
This means that all companies that produce or import packaged goods to the Kenyan market will bear responsibility for the recycling of the materials used for the packaging. Companies must form Producer Responsibility Organizations that collects fees from the companies pursuant to the volumes of packaging (plastic, cardboard, aluminum, glass etc.) they have marketed each months and channel the funds to contracted recyclers who in turn makes sure that the materials are collected, sorted and recycled.
KEYWORDS
Thematic
Circular economy, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), waste management, plastic pollution,
recycling, landfills
Legal
National
Tech
Mass-operations, integrated licensing, approval and payment, climate cloud, trigger cases
Solution
An F2 platform has been designed and configured to serve the needs of the packaging PRO. A PRO eco-system is a complex mechanism with a multitude of stakeholders and a number of processes tying them together.
The key in this solution is to utilize the F2-platform architecture to develop a database that can be used both for membership management, monthly invoicing as well as control and reporting.
The solution consists both of membership management for all companies involved in the packaging waste cycle. The monthly EPR-reporting, where companies submit information of packaging materials used and are issued invoices for EPR-fees accordingly. Similarly for contracted recyclers, who report on volumes recycled to receive subsidies based on a quota system. Finally the data is
also used to report to authorities on compliance and performance in terms of increased sustainability and circularity.
To ease the burden of the companies and the producer responsibility organization the monthly reporting and payment case flow is automated to a large extend (see below). So called trigger cases assist with mass operations. The solutions selects the members in the base registry who are eligible for reporting, creating unique links for companies to access a self service. If information is missing or erroneous hearing-links are generated for companies to re-submit.
Thousands of companies, after signing up, will receive monthly calls for declarations of materials used and payment of fees. Information that will be subject to audit trails. If companies fail to report and become compliant they are automatically on an observation list that triggers when their legally required quarterly compliance certificates are to be issued.
The recyclers will be awarded contracts based on applications in the system and subsequently be payed based on recycled volumes. The platform developed needs to be able to handle a vast amount of declarations ensuring the highly confidential data involved. Thus, scalability and data integrity is paramount. At the same time, it is crucial to compliance with national regulation that free riders are identified, so that no one can avoid taking responsibility. This call for transparency and accountability also stresses the need for a solid, digital platform.
Results
The system has been developed on the cBrain Climate Cloud in a few months preparing the Packaging PRO (KEPRO) for the enactment of the regulation. It is crucial that the solution is easy and effective to use for the producer responsibility organization and at the same time delivers on the promise of getting all actors in the packaging waste cycle to pay their dues, thus incentivizing increased recycling.
The next steps will be to put in place reporting mechanisms towards the authorities and control and audits procedures for the members.
F2 Climate Software Solutions
