Making Sense of Extended Producer Responsibility: Towards a framework for policy transfer

Abstract: Policy transfer of complex interventions often falls into the trap of uninformed, incomplete, and/or inappropriate transfer because the interventions are insufficiently identified with some of their perceived core components. This is no exception in the interspatial learning about extended producer responsibility (EPR) programmes. This thesis aims to transcend this shorthand approach to policy transfer. It combines the evaluations of EPR programmes for the management of end-of-life vehicles (ELV) and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in the developed world with the analysis of the contexts in developing countries. The political areas include the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, India, Argentina, and Thailand. The evaluation research applied theory-based evaluation (TBE) to archival and case data. The context studies used topical interviews and secondary data to conduct qualitative material flow analysis (MFA). The thesis maps out different variances of programmes and policy proposals, linking their mechanisms with policy outcomes, and then specifies key moderating and mediating factors in the actual contexts. In this way, it contributes to the prospect of policy development in developing countries by increasing the analytical tractability and checking the transferability of policy lessons.