Product stewardship

This section contains:

• An overview of shared responsibility Product stewardship, what it is and why do it?
• Links to:
• a 'How to' kit to help you develop your own approaches to product stewardship
• background information on 'Product stewardship in Australia', Sustainability Victoria's product stewardship trials for computers, paint, mercury-containing lamps and household batteries
• other related Sustainability Victoria programs.

What is product stewardship and why do it?

The Victorian Government's Environment Protection Act, 1970 says that "producers and users of goods and services have a shared responsibility with Government to manage the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of the goods and services, including the ultimate disposal of any wastes" Product stewardship is an important step in reducing the environmental impacts of products we regularly use, and aims to

• improve the efficiency with which we use raw materials
• increase resource recovery
• extend the life of products
• manage solid waste, especially toxic components, at the end of product life.

In Australia and around the world, companies are increasingly taking greater responsibility for their products, and in practise, stewardship can take many forms. Some are able to influence the impact of their products at every stage of the life cycle and supply chain, while others may have influence at the start (design and manufacture) or end (recovery and recycling) of the product's life.

The four main drivers for this increased interest in product stewardship are:

• government legislation, including the threat of legislation, and pre-empting or avoiding legislation.
• companies' own corporate responsibility charters, requiring  greater environmental responsibility
• the desire to improve or protect brand reputation
• pressure from consumers and environment organisations.

In Australia, product stewardship is increasingly being used along side or in place of regulation. Many industry sectors are active participants in product stewardship programs, including:

Mobile Phones: Mobile Muster mobile phone collection program (AMTA) (see the Mobile Muster website) 
Computers - computer industry participation in ByteBack computer recycling program
Packaging - National Packaging Covenant
Agricultural Containers - Drum Muster collection program (see drumMuster website)

Sustainability Victoria's product stewardship programs

Sustainability Victoria has a long history of trialling and piloting product stewardship schemes and some of these schemes have helped inform national product stewardship approaches.  The 'How to' kit brings together the learnings from these trials to help others develop their own product stewardship programs.

We work in partnership with a range of organisations across all areas of the product lifecycle. Current programs include:

• Design for Sustainability (link opens the ResourceSmart website)
• Detox Your Home (link opens the ResourceSmart website)
• Byteback (link opens the ResourceSmart website)

Product stewardship has been highlighted in Our Environment Our Future, the Victorian Government's action statement on environmental sustainability.

'How to' kit

The "how-to" kit provides a step by step guide offering tips on setting up a shared responsibility product stewardship/take back scheme, trial or pilot for a product or product group and includes links to Sustainability Victoria programs.

Links

Further background information:

•  Product Stewardship in Victoria (149KB)
•  Product Stewardship Framework (486KB)
•  Mercury-containing lamps (57KB)
•  Household batteries (73KB)
•  Paintback - paint product stewardship trials in Victoria (2.07MB)

Find more information about product stewardship and product life cycles at ResourceSmart.

Top | Last updated 23/09/2009