S06 Episode 275 | The Or Foundation's take on their recent agreement with SHEIN, how these grant funds are/will be used within the Kantamanto community & extended producer responsibility (EPR)

<p class="" data-pm-slice="1 1 []">In episode 275, Kestrel welcomes <strong>Liz Ricketts</strong> (the cofounder and Director of The Or Foundation), alongside <strong>Sammy Oteng</strong> (a fashion designer, researcher, and the Community Design Lab Manager at The Or Foundation), to the show. A nonprofit based in the USA and Ghana, <a href="https://theor.org" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">The Or Foundation’s</a> primary goal is to catalyze what they call a justice-led circular economy.</p> <p><strong>“What’s so unfair about what fast fashion has done is that it’s created a situation where every single garment that’s created, whether it was from me or from Sammy or if it’s upcycled or recycled — it’s still waste until proven otherwise, because we just have so much excess in circulation right now, and it’s just very unfair to anyone who’s trying to do the right thing.” -Liz</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)</span></p> <p class="">Before we get into it, there’s one thing I want to contextualize. And it’s probably something you’ve heard about - maybe something you’ve even heard a lot about recently. That thing is – <strong>Extended Producer Responsibility</strong> or <strong>EPR</strong>.</p> <p class="">EPR policy would ideally ensure that producers are required to assume the costs of collection, treating, and recycling of their end-of-life products. Basically, it puts the financial burden of the waste management on the actual brands to deal with their products after citizens are done with them.</p> <p class="">In 2007, France was the first country to declare a legal framework for managing textile waste through EPR policy with the goal of holding textile producers responsible for the collection and recycling of end-of-use clothing, linen, and shoes. The EU also recently announced EPR schemes to help address textile waste from fast fashion. </p> <p class="">However – France and the EU’s policies fail to compensate the communities where the majority of t