cost of the product, theoretically meaning that the producers will improve the waste profile of their products, thus decreasing waste and increasing possibilities for reuse and recycling. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development defines extended producer responsibility as: a concept where manufacturers and importers of products should bear a significant degree of responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products throughout the product life-cycle, including upstream impacts inherent in the selection of materials for the products, impacts from manufacturers’ production process itself, and downstream impacts from the use and disposal of the products. Producers accept their responsibility when designing their products to minimise life-cycle environmental impacts, and when accepting legal, physical or socio-economic responsibility for environmental impacts that cannot be eliminated by design. Switzerland The waste management in Switzerland is based on the polluter pays principle. Bin bags (for municipal solid waste) are taxed with pay-per-bag fees in three quarters of the communes (and the recycling rate doubled in twenty years). United Kingdom Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 established the operation of the polluter pays principle. This was further built upon by The Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) Regulations 2009 (for England) and the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (Wales) Regulations 2009 (for Wales). United States The principle is employed in all of the major US pollution control laws: Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (solid waste and hazardous waste management), and Superfund (cleanup of abandoned waste sites). Some eco-taxes underpinned by the polluter pays principle include: the Gas Guzzler Tax for motor vehicles Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE), a "polluter pays" fine. the Superfund law requires polluters to pay for cleanup of hazardous waste sites, when the polluters can be identified. Limitations of polluter pays principle The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has observed that the polluter pays principle has typically not been fully implemented in US laws and programs. For example, drinking water and sewage treatment services are subsidized and there are limited mechanisms in place to fully assess polluters for treatment costs. Zimbabwe The Zimbabwe Environmental Management Act of 2002 prohibits the discharge of pollutants into the environment. In line with the "Polluter Pays" principle, the Act requires a polluter to meet the cost of decontaminating the polluted environment. In international environmental law In international environmental law it is mentioned in the principle 16 of the Rio Declaration