PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP POLICY STATEMENT

Adopted May 13, 2003

Product stewardship means that, whoever designs, makes, sells, uses or disposes of a product is responsible for minimizing its environmental impact. This responsibility spans the product's entire life cycle.

The goals of product stewardship are to:

• Encourage manufacturers to design products with fewer toxics and virgin materials,
  
• Encourage source reduction,
  
• Make products more durable, reusable, and recyclable,
  
• Increase use of recycled materials in product manufacture, and
  
• Educate consumers about the environmental impacts of their purchases and encourage them to consider these impacts when making purchasing and disposal decisions.

The need is to change thinking and behavior from a consumption and use perspective towards waste minimization and sustainable production. Product stewardship balances the responsibility for end-of-life management between the public sector (government and taxpayers) and the private sector (manufacturers, retailers and the consumers). End-of-life management places a priority upon source reduction, reuse, recycling and strategies other than disposal.

Background

The Northeast Recycling Council, Inc. (NERC) is a ten-state non-profit organization dedicated to recycling market development. NERC has been actively involved in product stewardship initiatives since the early '90s. It worked directly with Northeast newspaper publishers to negotiate a commitment to use more recycled newsprint, and working with the Direct Marketing Association and Yellow Pages Publishers to use recycled content paper and improve the recyclability of the Yellow pages. In addition, NERC was an active stakeholder in the national carpet recycling product stewardship initiative, and is a signatory to the national agreement, and NERC is an active stakeholder in the National Electronics Product Stewardship (NEPSI) Dialogue. It also adopted the first used electronics market development policy in the United States, which embraces principles of shared responsibility.

Purpose

The purpose of this Product Stewardship Policy Statement is to articulate guiding principles for NERC to use as it works with policy makers, manufacturers, retailers, consumers, regulators, legislators, waste managers and others to develop programs that more safely, cost-effectively and appropriately manage products during the design, distribution, use, and at the end-of-life. Because NERC's mission focuses on solid waste minimization and recycling market development, NERC's priority focuses upon those products that due to the materials that they contain or other characteristics require special collection, handling, recycling or disposal practices, or products that represent large percentages of the solid waste stream.

POLICY STATEMENT

NERC believes that it is in the best interest of the public welfare to reduce the adverse health, financial, environmental, and other impacts associated with the life cycle of consumer products. NERC endorses a product stewardship strategy that includes market incentives as an effective and significant strategy to achieve this result.

Responsibility: The responsibility for reducing product impacts should be shared among industry, retailers, government, and consumers. NERC believes that the greater the capacity and efficiency an entity or interest group has to minimize a product's life cycle impacts, the greater is its degree of responsibility and opportunity for addressing those impacts.

Life Cycle Costs: The environmental costs of product manufacture, use, and disposal should be minimized to the greatest extent possible. These costs should be shared among the product manufacturers, retailers and consumers. Market competition, sustainable natural resource use, consumer preference, and efficiencies should provide financial incentives for manufacturers to reduce these life cycle costs.

Incentives for Cleaner Products & Sustainable Management Practices: Government can and should provide incentives to manufacturers. Such incentives may include procurement policies and practices, and grant and loan programs.

Multi-Stakeholder Cooperation: It is through regional and multi-stakeholder dialogue and cooperation that product stewardship strategies will be most effectively developed and implemented.

NERC Action Guidelines

To implement this Product Stewardship policy NERC will pursue actions such as:

1. Initiating, participating in or facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue and regional cooperation to establish negotiated product stewardship agreements that
   • Promote the redesign and manufacture of products to minimize environmental and economic life cycle impacts and facilitate source reduction, reuse, and recycling, and decrease the use of toxic and virgin components.
     
   • Include measurable performance goals.
2. Working with government to develop and establish policies and programs that encourage product stewardship. This may include developing model procurement standards, policies and practices.

Acknowledgements

NERC acknowledges the product stewardship policy statements developed by the Northwest Product Stewardship Council, the Product Stewardship Institute, and the Solid Waste Association of North America, all of which influenced the development and language of this document. Thank you.