why we need product stewardship
TRANSCRIPT
Every day we each use
hundreds of products
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
Many of these products – and their packaging
– impact the environment and health in unintended
ways
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
Under the current system there is a lack of incentive to design better products
there is no cost to business to continue to throw away more and more material
there are no incentives to create products that
last longer or are
more easily recycled
Many goods are designed to be obsolete in just a few years.
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
For one thing, this results in a lot of stuff…
…each American throws away about 1,600 pounds of trash every year, much of it products and packaging!
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
When we dispose of materials, instead of recycling them, we need
to extract more virgin resources to make new products…which
consumes energy and can cause other environmental impacts.
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
Some products contain toxic substances that can be released to the environment in the waste stream…
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
.Some products are associated with other unintended impacts…such as drug abuse or hazards to workers…
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
Still other products may pose operational challenges in the waste stream.
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
Today, we look to local
governments to manage this
increasingly complex waste stream…
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
This costs money!
In 2009, Nebraska spent an estimated $2 million tax dollars to manage household hazardous waste…
…and they weren’t able to collect all the problematic product & packaging waste that was out there.
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
Government and
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
taxpayers can’t solve this problem alone…