Kenya Notifies New Regulations to extend the responsibility of producers over their products and packaging throughout their entire life cycle.

Kenya has notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) of its new regulations on sustainable waste management. The Sustainable Waste Management Act (No. 31 of 2022) (Extended Producer Responsibility) Regulations, 2022, aims to extend the responsibility of producers over their products and packaging throughout their entire life cycle. The regulations also provide a framework for the establishment and operation of mandatory extended producer responsibility schemes and promote a collaborative approach to the management of products and associated wastes.

The regulations will apply to producers, individual extended producer responsibility compliance schemes, and producer responsibility organizations. The products covered under these regulations are those that have a negative impact on the environment and health due to their challenges on reuse, recyclability, and recoverability, as well as their high management cost at the post-consumer stage.

The objective and rationale of these regulations are to protect the environment by optimizing the life cycle approach to management of products and associated wastes, enhancing resource mobilization for management of products and sustainable waste management, and promoting the operationalization of the polluter pays principle.

The proposed date of adoption for these regulations is 30 September 2023, and the final date for comments is 60 days from the notification. Interested parties can obtain more information from the Kenya Bureau of Standards, which is the WTO/TBT National Enquiry Point for Kenya.

Notification: G/TBT/N/KEN/1424

Documents: 23_9306_00_e.pdf