The emergence of hybrid co-regulation: empirical evidence and rationale in the field of e-waste management

TLDR: In this article, the authors focus on the case of waste management in Europe and the concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR) and compare the French case analysis and the comparison of the two systems, showing that beyond their mere legal intermediary status, PROs revealed to be key actors with a significant influence on the waste sector organization and dynamics.

Abstract: In the neoliberal governmentality current, hybrid regulation captures the idea that complementary forms of public and private regulations coexist, which encourages the emergence and the participation of regulatory intermediaries in the process of policy making. Despite numerous experiments, hybrid co-regulation has received little attention and is under theorized. To understand how hybrid regulation is implemented in practice, this paper focus on the case of waste management in Europe and the concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR). In France under the EPR principle, producers created collective organizations (PROs), whereas in Germany an individual responsibility was prefered. The French case analysis and the comparison of the two systems show that, beyond their mere legal intermediary status, PROs revealed to be key actors with a significant influence on the waste sector organization and dynamics.