1. Every day we each
use
hundreds
of products
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Institute
2. Many of these
products – and
their packaging –
impact the
environment and
health in
unintended ways
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3. Many goods are designed to be obsolete
in just a few years.
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
Under the current system there is a lack of
incentive to design better products
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4. 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
5. 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.
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6. Some products contain toxic substances
that can be released to the environment
in the waste stream…
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Institute
7. Some products are associated
.
with other unintended
impacts…such as drug abuse or
hazards to workers…
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8. Still other
products may
pose operational
challenges in the
waste stream.
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9. Today, we look to local
governments to manage this
increasingly complex waste
stream…
10. This costs money!
We spend millions managing
household hazardous waste…
…and still we aren’t able
to collect all the
problematic product &
packaging waste out
there.
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American produces about 4.4 pounds (2 kg) of garbage a day, or a total of 29 pounds (13 kg) per week and 1,600 pounds (726 kg) a year
This is a mine in Germany. This is a technique known as surface mining.
