Producer Responsibility – Managed Market versus Free Market approaches

Back in our April issue, the editorial column was devoted to the subject of producer responsibility and the fact that the Government had asked the tyre industry to re-think its approach towards the subject.It soon became clear that, from the united industry answer to the first consultation paper, this time there was to be no such degree of unanimity and different sectors proposed different approaches. On the one hand were the manufacturers – or at least some of them – who favoured what they described as a “managed approach” while on the other hand, retailers and wholesalers (many of this latter group would be obligated as importers of tyres) preferred what they called the “free market approach”.