How does Product Stewardship Work?

Current Waste Management System

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To understand how product stewardship systems work, let’s first take a look at the current system for how products are produced, consumed, and managed at their end-of-life.  

• Producers make products. Products are often designed without much consideration to their end-of-life. This often results in products that contain toxic materials and are difficult to recycle.  
• Consumers buy and use products. When products are no longer needed, they are often disposed of (sent to landfill or incineration), if there are no convenient and accessible options to reuse or recycle the products at the end-of-life.  
• Local governments are generally responsible for managing waste, i.e., the garbage and recycling system.
• Residents pay a fee to their local public works / solid waste agency for these services.  
• Local governments try their best to provide recycling services, but they often lack the resources to handle the wide range of products that require specialized disposal—especially those containing toxic materials like electronics or mercury-containing light bulbs. Some products pose significant environmental and human health risks and are often costly to manage at their end of life. Without adequate funding and infrastructure, many of these products that are reusable, recyclable and / or toxic end up in landfills or the environment – resulting in valuable resources being lost and harm to the environment.
• In this system, a producer’s responsibility ends when the product is sold. 

Product Stewardship System

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In a Product Stewardship system, the producer takes on part of the responsibility for managing their own products at the end-of-life.  

• Producers create a system to recycle and/or properly dispose of their own products. 
• Producers appoint or form a Stewardship Organization or Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) to manage a program where residents can “take back” their products to be recycled or properly disposed when they are done using them.  
• The Stewardship Organization or PRO works with local governments, collectors, recyclers and processors to provide end-of-life management services. Sometimes the PRO reimburses local governments for services provided for the products that they are responsible for. Otherwise the PRO contracts with private waste management service providers for their services.   
• The program is funded by fees paid by producers or, in some cases, by consumers on products sold.  
• Consumers buy products and when they’re done using them, they bring them to the take back program at no additional charge.  
• Producers are now responsible for part of the system and have an incentive to reduce waste and make their products more recyclable and/or reusable and less toxic.  

Who is involved?

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• Producers work together in groups or independently to provide convenient product stewardship / EPR programs. They pay for the management, collection, recycling, and/or responsible disposal of their own products. The costs of EPR are often internalized in the costs of doing business. Producers have an incentive to lower the costs of the program by creating efficient systems and making products that are easy to reuse and recycle.  
• Government agencies help promote the program and ensure high participation and high recycling rates. Local governments can get reimbursed for the services provided. State governments provide oversight and ensure the products are managed responsibly in an environmentally sound manner. Many state and local governments include product stewardship policies and activities in their comprehensive solid waste and hazardous waste management plans.  
• Collectors such as recycling and waste management companies provide collection services for the covered products and transport them to designated processors. Their services are funded by the Stewardship Organization or PRO.  
• Retailers can also serve as collection sites for products that consumers bring back for recycling and/or disposal.  
• Consumers pay directly or indirectly for the stewardship program when purchasing certain products and they do their part by bringing unwanted products to collection sites for recycling and/or disposal.

Product Stewardship and EPR: What’s the difference? 

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Product Stewardship and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) are terms that are often used interchangeably to describe a long-term solution to manage waste products by shifting the responsibility for collection, transportation, and management of products away from local governments to producers.  Basically, product stewardship is a “shared responsibility” approach, in which all stakeholders (producers, retailers, local and state governments, solid waste collection companies, and consumers) share in the responsibility for making sure products are managed properly.  Extended producer responsibility places the responsibility directly on the producers.  Several definitions for each of the terms exist. The Product Stewardship Institute, Upstream, the California Product Stewardship Council and others define EPR as “a mandatory type of product stewardship…”