What is EPR?
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is when a producer develops a program to take care of the afterlife of its product. This can be done voluntarily or through legislation. The ROSE Foundation implanted voluntary EPR for 29 years since 1994.
On 5 November 2020, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) promulgated EPR Regulations 2020, in South Africa, which came into effect on 5 May 2021. These regulations are informed by Section 18 of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act, No. 59 of 2008.
At the same time, DFFE issued notices for three (3) industries to comply within six (6) months of the publication of the Regulations and the Notices. Paper, Packaging and Single-Use Plastics, Electric and Electronic, and Lighting industries were the first to receive the Notices.
On 23 March 2023, three (3) additional industries were issued with notices to implement EPR in their respective sectors, namely, Lubricant Oil, Portable Batteries, and Pesticides. The producers in each sector had to establish an EPR Scheme and form a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) within six (6) months, and for each existing producer to register with DFFE within the same time timeframe. All new producers are required to register within three (3) months of being registered.
Please click on this link to register as a producer on the DFFE EPR portal:
What is a PRO?
The acronym PRO is an abbreviation of the word Producer Responsibility Organisation. A PRO is a non-profit company that is established by a group of producers in a particular sector of the economy for the purposes of taking care of the afterlife of a product they produce and place on the market. In the case of the lubricant industry, the producers manufacture and import various types of products for the automotive and industrial sectors of the economy.
Lubricants get contaminated in their use and need to be replaced with new oil. Used oil is the lubricating oil that is drained from machinery, engines, gearboxes, hydraulic systems, turbines and air compressors, once it has become dirty and contaminated. The responsibility of ROSE Foundation as a PRO for the lubricant industry is to ensure that all the used oil is collected, transported, stored, and recycled responsible to protect the environment in South Africa.
EPR Levies
Once the producers have established a PRO, they need to determine the levies payable by each member company. The levies need to be approved by the DFFE, in concurrence with Treasury
The Board of Directors of the ROSE Foundation has determined a levy structure for 2023 until 2032. The levies apply on the 1 July of each year. This is aimed at allowing companies to plan and reduce the anxiety that might be caused by levy uncertainty.
The levies for producers under the ROSE Foundation EPR Scheme are as follows:
Producers
According to EPR Regulations, a producer is defined as:
“producer” means any person or category of persons or a brand owner who is engaged in the commercial manufacture, conversion, refurbishment (where applicable) or import of new and / or used identified products as identified by the Minister by Notice in the Government Gazette in terms of section 18(1) of the Act, and a producer includes, where relevant, the same as defined in the specific section 18 Notices for each of the identified products as gazetted by the Minister in terms of section 18(1) and (2) of the Act;
The following producers are members of the ROSE Foundation EPR Scheme:
Afrilube
AG Lubricants
Astron Energy
Blendrite Chemicals
Blue Chip Lubricants
BP/Castrol Southern Africa
Chemical Solutions and Innovations
C.I.M Lubri Fuel
Deojay
Engen Petroleum
Flexilube
Fuchs Lubricants SA
G.U.D Holdings
Habot
H & R South Africa
SlateBlu
Motul
Oilflow
Petromark
Piston Power Chemicals CC
PUMA Energy South Africa
Q-Base
Sasol Oil
Shell SA
Stacor
Strub Lubricants
TOTAL Energies Marketing South Africa
Toyota South Africa
Unichem Services
Viscol CC