MRN Past President, Chaz Miller, participated in a panel on product stewardship at the American Bar Association Environment, Energy and Resources Workshop in September. Below is an abstract of the paper he prepared for the panel. Click here to view the full document.
ABSTRACT
Product stewardship laws have been enacted in 32 states. These laws cover nine categories of products, most of which contain hazardous components such as mercury. Electronics products, automobile switches and thermostats are the most commonly covered products. Recently states have begun to extend product stewardship to cover paint and carpets and are considering extension to clearly non-hazardous products such as packaging and printed materials. The most commonly cited objectives for product stewardship laws are to internalize a product’s waste management costs, create incentives for improved product design and reduce the cost of solid waste management currently borne by local governments. This paper examines the status of current product stewardship laws and whether or not they have met product stewardship objectives. The paper questions the wisdom of extending these laws to more traditionally recycled materials such as packaging and printed materials without additional experience from current programs throughout the world. Finally, the paper examines the impact of product stewardship laws on traditional oversight of solid waste management by state and local governments.
(Note: The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the Maryland Recycling Network, National Solid Wastes Management Association or the Environmental Industry Associations.)