Extended Producer Responsibility and the Circular Economy: A Systematic Review of Comparative Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is increasingly expected to advance circularity beyond conventional collection and recycling, yet performance varies across waste streams and implementation contexts. This systematic review evaluates EPR across packaging waste, electronic waste, and end-of-life tires and examines the conditions shaping circular-economy outcomes. Following PRISMA 2020, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, Dimensions, PubMed/MEDLINE, and gray-literature sources were searched through 15 August 2026. Eligible evidence substantively addressed EPR policy, governance, implementation, or circular outcomes. Of 6924 records identified, 236 sources were retained, comprising 185 peer-reviewed publications and 51 policy, legislative, institutional, or technical documents. Sources were appraised against JBI, AMSTAR 2, or AACODS criteria according to their design, and evidence was synthesized thematically and comparatively using a five-level circularity-progression benchmark and weighted by evidence type, directness, and consistency. EPR performs most consistently in financing and organizing collection and recycling, while higher-order circularity depends on institutional capacity, producer accountability, financing, infrastructure, traceability, secondary-material markets, and stakeholder inclusion. Evidence from seven Sub-Saharan African jurisdictions shows that regulatory ambition must be matched by implementation readiness and context-appropriate integration of informal recovery systems. Evidence depth remains uneven across jurisdictions and study designs. EPR can contribute meaningfully to circularity when policy ambition is aligned with institutional and operational capability.