Product stewardship

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The Manx Electric Railway on the Isle of Man still operates with its original tramcars and trailers, all of which are over one hundred years old, the latest dating from 1906.

Product stewardship is an approach to managing the environmental impacts of different products and materials and at different stages in their production,

lifecycle, on the environment and on human health and safety.[1] This approach focusses on the product itself, and everyone involved in the lifespan of the product is called upon to take up responsibility to reduce its environmental, health, and safety impacts.[2]

For

manufacturers, this includes planning for, and if necessary, paying for the recycling or disposal of the product at the end of its useful life. This may be achieved, in part, by redesigning products to use fewer harmful substances, to be more durable, reusable and recyclable, and to make products from recycled materials.[3] For retailers and consumers, this means taking an active role in ensuring the proper disposal or recycling of an end-of-life product
.

Those who advocate it are concerned with the later phases of

comprehensive outcome of the whole production process. It is considered a pre-requisite to a strict service economy
interpretation of (fictional, national, legal) "commodity" and "product" relationships.

The most familiar example is the

homeless people in U.S.
cities.

However, the principle is applied very broadly beyond bottles to

academe and corporate public relations (derisively referred to as greenwashing
).

The demand-side approach ethical consumerism, supported by consumer education and information about environmental impacts, may approach some of the same outcomes as product stewardship.

Legislation

Australia's Product Stewardship Act 2011 provides a framework for managing the environmental, health and safety impacts of products, and in particular those impacts associated with the disposal of products and their associated waste. The framework includes voluntary, co-regulatory and mandatory product stewardship. The passage of the legislation is said to have delivered on a key commitment by the Australian Government under the National Waste Policy, which was agreed by Australian state governments in November 2009 and endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments in October 2010.[4]

The Act supports the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS) through the Product Stewardship (Televisions and Computers) Regulations 2011. The scheme has recycled approximately 230,000 tonnes of electronic waste since its inception. This review is an important opportunity to continue to update and improve the NTCRS.

The Minister’s Product List is established by the Act, and is updated annually. The list informs the community and industry of those products being considered for accreditation or regulation under the Act.

A review of the Act was mandated to take place five years after implementation, and this was initiated in March 2018.[5]

Extended producer responsibility

Product Stewardship is often used interchangeably with extended producer responsibility, a similar concept. However, there are distinct differences between the two, as suggested by the semantics of the different terms used.

While both concepts bring the onus of waste management for end-of-life products from the government to the manufacturers, Product Stewardship further extends this responsibility to everyone involved in the life-cycle of the product—not only manufacturers, but also retailers, consumers and

recyclers.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Energy, Product Stewardship, accessed 29 September 2019
  2. ^ United States Environment Protection Agency, The United States Environment Protection Agency
  3. ^ The National Chemical Emergency Centre Archived 2007-05-28 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Australian Government, What is the Product Stewardship Act 2011, accessed 29 September 2019
  5. ^ Australian Government, Review of the Product Stewardship Act 2011, including the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme Consultation paper, published March 2018, accessed 29 September 2019
  6. ^ Waste to Wealth Archived 2012-03-10 at the Wayback Machine

External links

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