STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE: POLICY OPTIONS

1
STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE POLICY OPTIONS

• TIM COOPER
• Throwing Away Policies, EPSRC Network seminar
• April 2005

2
PRODUCT LIFE SELECTED REPORTS

• OECD (1982)
• European Consumers Law Group (1988)
• Cooper (1994)
• Heiskanen (1996)
• Kostecki (1998)
• Mayers and Cooper (2000)

3
EVALUATING POLICY INSTRUMENTS

• Effectiveness
• Motivation
• Administrative cost
• Efficiency
• Political acceptability
• Distributional impact
• Connelly and Smith, Politics and the Environment,
  1999

4
REGULATION AND ENFORCEMENT

• Minimum product standards
• cf energy efficiency
• Statutory life span labels
• Statutory waste targets
• e.g. WEEE Directive and re-use?
• Increased competition in the warranties market
• Stricter repair contracts

5
ECONOMIC INSTRUMENTS

• Ecological tax reform
• increased taxes on resources
• reduced taxes on labour
• 'pay as you throw'
• Zero rating VAT on repair work
• Variable VAT by length of guarantee
• Public subsidies for social businesses
• i.e. re-use

6
VOLUNTARY APPROACHES

• Education in schools and FE/HE
• Training/CPD
• design for durability
• integration into CSR culture
• Voluntary life span labels
• independent or within existing schemes
• Longer product guarantees
• Industry codes of conduct (e.g. spare parts)
• Public procurement policy