Extended producer responsibility: all you need to know
In France, the building sector represents approximately 42 million tons of waste per year, i.e. the equivalent of the total quantity of waste produced each year by households. Faced with these data, the government has planned to set up an EPR sector, or extended producer responsibility, dedicated to building products and materials, to fight against waste in favor of the circular economy (AGEC law of February 10, 2020).
For materials traders, this implies new obligations on the treatment of waste which come into force from 1er May 2023. Concretely, what is REP Building? What are you concerned about? What is the impact on your business? Update on this new regulation.
1. What is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Building?
Extended Producer Responsibility or EPR requires suppliers responsible for placing materials on the market to manage the end of life of their products in a sustainable way. Enshrined in law since 1975, it places the responsibility for waste management on the producer. Today, more than 30 REP sectors exist, from household packaging to electrical and electronic equipment, including medicines, chemicals, furniture, textiles, etc. It is the anti-waste law for a circular economy (AGEC), promulgated in February 2020, which further endorses this principle to promote the circular economy and improve current production and consumption uses.
It has two objectives:
- reducing illegal dumping by improving waste collection;
- prevention of saturation of landfills by developing the circular economy (recycling, reuse, reuse).
The establishment of a Building sector or PMCB (Construction Products and Materials in the Building sector) stems from quantified observations. Building waste consists of 75% inert waste, 23% non-hazardous and non-inert waste, and 2% hazardous waste. Among these, asbestos waste are also frequently present in wild deposits.
While the building waste recovery rate is nearly 70%, most inert waste is sent for quarry backfilling, material recycling represents only 30% and hazardous waste is only recovered at 25%.
2. Who is affected by EPR PMCB?
The REP Bâtiment or PMCB concerns all producers who manufacture, assemble, import and/or introduce on the French market products or materials intended for the construction or renovation of a building. On the distributor side, the law also applies provided that their sales area is greater than 4,000 m².
Professional and non-professional consumers of these products are also concerned, who must ensure that the waste from their sites (particularly in demolition) is collected, cleaned up and recycled in accordance with the regulations in force.
Are you a producer of construction products and materials in the building sector?
Two eco-participation options are available to you for waste management:
- Act independently and develop your own collection and treatment system (reuse and recycling);
- Join an eco-organization approved by the public authorities, which will manage your waste, and thus transfer your REP to it in the form of a financial contribution.
Are you a distributor of these same products?
You must facilitate the recovery of waste by promoting collection and making containers available to recover it, free of charge and without obligation to purchase a product in exchange. You must also bind to an approved eco-organization.
Important: Since January 1, 2023, all producers and distributors of construction products and materials must join one or more eco-organizations. As of May 1, 2023, manufacturers and distributors will be liable for an eco-contribution depending on the products placed on the market. The companies concerned will then have to include this contribution in the customer invoices.
3. What waste is concerned?
THE construction products and materials covered by EPR Building are classified into two main categories:
- Category 1: products and materials mainly made of minerals (concrete, stones, aggregates) and sanitary and bathroom equipment made of minerals
- Category 2: other products and materials, made from wood, plaster, plastics, glass, mineral wool, bitumen, textiles, etc. including frames.
In addition to these main categories, the sector also covers hazardous waste, excluding WEEE and chemical products, or prohibited before January 1, 2022: asbestos, wood treated with salts, heavy metal oxides, etc.
For each category of waste, there are different certified eco-organisations:
- Category 1:
- Category 2:
- For the 2 categories:
4. What is the role of your ERP?
Within the framework of extended producer responsibility and within your materials trade, your professional and private customers buy your products and then pay an eco-contribution. It is then up to you to pay this sum to the approved eco-organizations to which you belong. In the end, you must pass on the financial contribution to your sales orders.
The role of your ERP and your partner publisher is to support you in the implementation of these new obligations, particularly with regard to invoicing. With a accounting integrated into your management softwareyou can automate the eco-contribution and apply it systematically to your invoices according to the products.
Mark your calendars! At DL Négoce, the Open Pro software has evolved to take these obligations into account and allows this eco-contribution to be taken into account and printed on your invoices according to the items, as well as the periodic declaration of the quantities sold for the eco-contributions. -organisms.
Each month, producers must send their declarations of placing construction products and materials on the market to their eco-organization, while paying an eco-contribution to participate in the proper functioning of the sector. This new obligation within the framework of the REP Building obliges the traders in construction materials concerned to equip themselves with tools capable of supporting them in compliance with the regulations which govern the market and of optimizing their management and accounting processes.
