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Green ambassadors product stewardship
This document discusses product stewardship and how shared responsibility among all parties in a product's life cycle can help address issues of waste generation and environmental impacts. It notes that under the current system, producers lack incentives to design sustainable products and costs for waste management fall to local governments and taxpayers. Product stewardship shifts responsibility upstream so that those who design, make and sell products take greater ownership. The document provides examples of existing product stewardship programs in Nebraska and outlines roles different groups can play to support this approach.
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Green ambassadors product stewardship
- 2. Thank you tothe Product Stewardship Institute for their assistance in creating this presentation www.productstewardship.us
- 3. Every day weeach use hundreds of products
- 4. Under the currentsystem 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 Currently many goods are designed to be obsolete in just a few years.
- 5. We dispose ofa lot of stuff… …each year Americans throw away about 1,600 pounds of trash, much of it products and packaging! 4.4 lbs/day 29 lbs/week 1,600 lbs/year
- 6. That means byage 25 you’ve thrown away … 40,000 pounds
- 7. Photo courtesy: GeorgeHall By the time you’re 50 you’ve thrown away 80,000 pounds – or the weight of a Boeing 737 And that’s just one person!
- 8. Many of the productswe use, and their packaging, impact the environment and our health in unintended ways
- 9. Some products contain toxic substancesthat can be released into the environment in the waste stream…
- 10. Today, we lookto local governments to manage this increasingly complex waste stream.
- 11. The amount ofwaste generated has continued to rise & the costs of waste management continue to rise with it! Source: US EPA
- 12. Local governments areresponsible for dealing with any and all waste that comes their way. They have no control over: - the quantity of waste - or the materials
- 13. Taxpayer dollars arespent to clean up the mess Either picking up goods that have been illegally discarded Or through environmental remediation needed to remove the toxic substances from our drinking water and soils
- 14. Our current system is wasting valuable resources& and it is EXPENSIVE!
- 15. Where do wego from here?
- 16. Product Stewardship directsall those involved in the life cycle of a product to take responsibility for the impacts to our health and the natural environment that result from the production, use, and end- of-life management of the product.
- 17. Product Stewardship looks tothose who Design Make Sell the products to take the greatest responsibility
- 18. Product Stewardship meanslooking at the impact of a product: from the time it is raw materials until it is discarded Raw Materials Manufacturing Transportation Retail Use Disposal
- 19. …everyone has arole to play from those who make it to those who sell it to those who buy it Producers Distributors Retailers Consumers Waste Management Responsibility: To produce goods that are safe for their customers & the environment
- 20. …everyone has arole to play from those who make it to those who sell it to those who buy it Producers Distributors Retailers Consumers Waste Management Retailers and other businesses have a unique ability to educate their customers and their suppliers about opportunities to reduce unintended environmental and health impacts from their products, and to help provide solutions for collection and recycling.
- 21. …everyone has arole to play from those who make it to those who sell it to those who buy it Producers Distributors Retailers Consumers Waste Management Responsibility: -Buy and use the best product -Dispose or recycle all goods responsibly
- 22. How do westart? Batteries Carpet Electronics Fluorescent Lighting Gas Cylinders Medical Sharps Mercury Products Thermostats Packaging Paint Pesticides Pharmaceuticals Phone books Radioactive Devices Tires
- 23. Thermostats PROBLEM: Toxic Mercury Averagethermostat contains 4 grams of mercury In 1994, there were approximately 63 million mercury thermostats in use within the residential sector alone, equal to about 277 tons of mercury. Expansion of Thermostat Recycling Corp. program to: • chain wholesalers, heating and cooling contractors, HHW facilities, retailers 15 states now have laws that ban or restrict the sale of mercury thermostats. Potential Benefit: More than $267,000 PER YEAR in direct savings or service benefit for Nebraska.
- 24. PROBLEM: Toxic metals,pollute soil & water 3 Billion sold annually Only 10-12% of rechargeable batteries are recycled. Even fewer single use batteries are recycled. Potential Benefit: More than $1.8 million PER YEAR in direct savings or service benefit for Nebraska. Batteries
- 25. PROBLEM: Excessive Waste 10%of paint sales becomes leftover (2006 = 75 million gallons in the U.S.) $640 million dollars/yr mgt cost (avg. cost: $8/liquid gallon) Potential Benefit: More than $3.5 million PER YEAR in direct savings or service benefit for Nebraska. Paint
- 26. PROBLEM: Toxic Mercury Environmentallysound in that they last longer and use just a fraction of the energy of incandescent bulbs. More than ½ billion fluorescent bulbs sold annually. Potential Benefit: Nearly $500,000 PER YEAR in direct savings or service benefit for Nebraska. Fluorescent Lamps
- 27. Pesticides PROBLEM: Environmental Impacts Riskto human health. High cost to collect. U.S. pesticide expenditures totaled more than $11 billion in 2000 and 2001 Potential Benefit: More than $2.2 million PER YEAR in direct savings or service benefit for Nebraska.
- 28. PROBLEM: Injury duringdisposal, transmission of disease. Estimated that over 3 billion disposable needles and syringes, and an additional 900 million lancets enter the municipal solid waste stream each year in the U.S. Sources: Those managing their own healthcare. Intravenous drug users. Potential Benefit: More than $1.1 million PER YEAR in direct savings or service benefit for Nebraska. Medical Sharps
- 29. Electronics Cell phones,computers, music players (ipods), blue tooth, lap tops, etc. 23 state electronics laws Manufacturer and retailer take-back programs in response to dialogue (e.g. Staples, Best Buy, HP, Dell, LG, etc.) Potential Benefit: More than $3.7 million PER YEAR in direct savings or service benefit for Nebraska. PROBLEM: Toxic Materials
- 30. PROBLEM: Unnecessary Waste 660,000tons of waste/year Voluntary industry guidelines developed • Opt out • Recycling • Sustainable production 90% of publishers now with opt out program Potential Benefit: More than $230,000 PER YEAR in direct savings or service benefit for Nebraska. Phone Books
- 31. Examples of Product Stewardshipin Nebraska:
- 32. Call2Recycle In this program individualbattery manufacturers pay a license fee to Call2Recycle Then Call2Recycle handles all the administration & pays all costs associated with collecting & recycling batteries MFG License fee • retail locations serve as collection points at no cost to them Batteries are recycled! www.call2recycle.com
- 33. Customer purchases CFL in ahardware store CFL bulb is used at home Stores collects bulbs & sends them to a recycling facility Recovered materials can make new bulbs Used bulbs can be returned to any store that collects them 1 2 43 5 Current Cities Broken Bow Chadron Grand Island Hastings Hebron Kearney La Vista Lincoln Nelson North Platte Omaha Ogallala Red Cloud Superior
- 34. Product Stewardship The BasicConcept. • Shared responsibility. • The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. • All costs should be included. • The costs of product manufacture should be minimized. • Financial incentive for manufacturers.
- 35. The Basic Concept. •Flexibility in determining how to address impacts. • Performance measured by results. • Incentives for “cleaner” • Incentives for end-of-live system • In realizing these principles, industry will need to provide leadership. • Government leadership • Industry and government education
- 36. Product Stewardship doesn’tnecessarily change the way consumers handle their goods when they no longer need them and it doesn’t necessarily require an entirely new infrastructure. Many Product Stewardship programs will continue to use existing collection infrastructure. Product Stewardship shifts waste management costs from the public to the private sector
- 37. Nebraska’s Foundation • Notfull product stewardship • Financial burden on tax payers • Infrastructure for future product stewardship programs • Nebraska is putting the pieces together • National voluntary product stewardship programs
- 38. Nebraska’s Foundation • Cooperativeeffort to build capacity • Identify what is occurring • Establish a baseline
- 40. Who makes productstewardship happen? Businesses Local governments State governments Environmental/health organizations Other institutions
- 41. What can youdo now? 1. Take advantage of voluntary programs that already exist 2. Urge major retailers who have take-back programs in other parts of the country to start one where you live
- 42. 3. Be aresponsible consumer A. Buy Better Products o Buy goods that are durable o Buy used when possible o Look for environmentally preferable goods • That don’t contain toxins • Are made from recycled materials B. When you are finished: o Resell o Reuse o Recycle o Or safely dispose of your goods
- 43. Providing Common Sense ResourceConservation to Nebraska
- 44. CFL bulb recyclingwith partnerships at various hardware and home improvement stores throughout Nebraska. Grant funding to communities & businesses to facility electronic waste collections. Battery Recycling: Pre-paid and pre-addressed collection boxes for battery shipments to the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation. Cell Phone Recycling: Collecting cell phones through a partnership with Wireless Alliance
- 45. Construction & DemolitionWaste Management: Assist with construction waste management plans, tracking materials recycled, and identifying service providers. Research and development to achieve LEED status. Finishing Technologies: Hands-on training system intended to instruct members of the surface coating industry using state-of-the-art virtual reality technology. Waste Assessments: A non-regulatory overview of a business’ volume of waste produced. Sustainability planning services which would include a broader look at all aspects of the company.
- 46. Curb Side Recycling:Through Recycling Enterprises, members of WasteCap Nebraska can offer discounted home recycling services to their employees living within the service area. Green Team Roundtables: Networking and educational opportunities for businesses interested in starting a green team, expanding the projects of the green teams or just have an interest in using green principles. Green Ambassadors: Speakers bureau aimed at educating Nebraska’s business leaders on product stewardship and the services of WasteCap Nebraska. Service Directory: A directory of recycling service providers and business/non-profits who reuse materials. Available in book form and on the WasteCap Nebraska website.
- 47. You are invitedto become a member of WasteCap Nebraska today. As a member, you can enjoy all of the service benefits previously listed, plus numerous educational and networking opportunities throughout the year. Plus you become a part of helping Nebraska businesses practice and develop product stewardship. Ask for your membership application today!
- 48.
- 49. How to StartToday! Call your local & state representatives Start small with your Product Stewardship program Be an “Another Bright Idea” collection point Be a “Call to Recycle” collection point Ask your local municipality to have a collection event (E-Scrap) Ask your favorite retailers to start product stewardship programs
- 50.
Editor's Notes
- #2 {Customize this for your presentation} Thank you. My name is ______________________. I am a Green Ambassador with WasteCap Nebraska. The Green Ambassadors is a speakers bureau program utilizing college interns to present information to Nebraska business leaders. I would like to thank __________________________ for allowing me to present my information today. I am a student attending ___________________________ majoring in ____________________. I plan to graduate in ____________________ and am looking for a career in _________________. Before we begin, I do need to ask you to help me out. Since this program is grant funded, it is important that we keep an accurate record of where we’ve been and who we’ve spoken to. I have a form here that I’ll pass around. Please place your name on it. I have a few requirements to meet, including presenting to a minimum number of people. So, it’s very important that you sign your name for me. If you want more information about any of our programs you can place a check mark on the sheet now, or just let me know after the program. I also need to ask you to complete this evaluation of my talk today. Again this is for grant reporting purposes. You don’t need to place your name on it, but please do complete it and leave it at your setting for me to pick up when we’re through today.Let’s go ahead and get started with this program.
- #3 I’d like to thank the Product Stewardship Institute for helping me with the information for this presentation today. If you’d like to learn more about the Product Stewardship Institute, please feel free to visit their website at www.productstewardship.us
- #4 Every day each of us uses hundreds of products. Let’s just think about the products we have touched since we’ve been in this room together today. {name a few of the products}
- #6 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. All this trash adds up.
- #7 If each of us produces 1600 pounds of trash each year, that means by the time we’re 25 – which isn’t very old – we’ve produced 40,000 pounds of trash. Can you imagine 40,000 pounds of trash in your back yard?
- #8 Is anyone in here 50 years old? Been on a plane lately? Imagine all that in trash. And now imagine O’Hare, Kennedy, or any other major airport and the heaping piles of trash we produce.
- #9 Part of theproblem is that all these products and their packaging can impact the environment and our health in unintended ways. When you throw away a wrapper, you don’t think about where it goes beyond the trash bin.
- #10 But some products contain toxins that can be unintentionally released into our environment. Lead, mercury, cadmium, lithium, flame retardants, special coatings, gases, and other toxins can escape as these products are crushed or slowing break down in our landfills. Once this happens, these toxins can get into our soil, water system, and even into our own bodies.
- #12 We have a growing problem with waste. Not only are more people in Nebraska producing waste, but each individual is also producing more waste. In 1960 each person was producing 2.68 pounds of waste per day, but in 2008 that number has grown to 4.5 pounds per day. And now multiply that by each person in this room, in this town, and in this STATE!
- #13 Our landfills are most often owned and operated by our local governments. But they have no control over the type of waste that is coming in or how much. And when there are restrictions, people have no place to put their unwanted items.
- #14 So, they often are left to sit in storage, left for new property owners to figure out, or worse, are dumped illegally. This clean-up costs tax payers even more money.
- #16 So what do we do? Where do we go from here?
- #17 This is where Product Stewardship comes in. Product Stewardshiplooks at everyone who is involved in a products life cycle and directs responsibility to each of them.
- #18 It specifically looks at those who design, make, and sell the products we use. Product stewardship moves the responsibility off us as individuals and off our municipalities.
- #23 This may seem like an overwhelming project, and we need to know where to start. The Product Stewardship Institute has identified these products as the place to start. They’ve chosen these items based on several factors including their harmful effects on the environment and to humans and the quantity of items disposed of. Let’s review some of these items to get a better understanding of the problem.
- #28 Pesticides can pose risks to human health and the environment, and they are used and disposed of in significant quantities. Currently, there is a lack of collection programs due to the high costs of collection and the lack of funding. There are numerous opportunities for pesticide manufacturers, retailers, and other industry stakeholders to join with government officials to reduce the impacts from pesticide manufacture, use, storage, and disposal.
- #32 Nebraska has already begun the product stewardship movement. Here are a couple of examples.
- #33 Call 2 Recycle is a battery recycling program that was actually started by the battery manufacturing industry. Manufacturers pay a licensing fee to Call2Recycle. Call2Recycle works with local retailers to serve as collection points. Consumers can return their spent rechargeable batteries and cell phones to the retail location and then Call2Recycle will pick those batteries up and recycle them. This prevents batteries from entering our landfills and puts them to good use! It costs nothing to the retailer or the consumer to recycle these batteries.
- #34 Another Bright Idea is a WasteCap Nebraska program. WasteCap works with local retailers, mostly hardware stores and libraries to serve as collection points for CFL bulbs. Consumers can return their burned out CFL light bulbs to a participating retailer, the bulbs are collected and then sent to a recycling facility so that the mercury can be collected and used again in a new bulb. We are working on increasing our locations throughout the state, but here are our current locations.Many of the other products previously listed are being recycled. The telephone book industry has started opt-out programs. Several companies recycle carpet into such products as decorative concrete, hot mix asphalt, coal based fuel pellets, block flooring, and sediment prevention bales. And other companies recycle or resell paint. While these are excellent programs, they are not true product stewardship because the manufacturer is not taking their products back. Instead the consumer is having to do the work to seek out these recycling opportunities.
- #35 These next slides outline the basic concepts behind Product Stewardship.* The responsibility for reducing product impacts should be shared among the industry (designers, manufacturers, and retailers), government, and consumers.* The greater the ability an entity has to minimize a product’s life-cycle impacts, the greater is its degree of responsibility, and opportunity, for addressing those impacts.Manufacturers have the greatest ability to make an impact because they are the ones choosing the raw materials, design and production processes, and distributing the product.* All product lifecycle costs should be included in the total product cost– from using resources, to reducing health and environmental impacts throughout the production process, to managing products at the end-of-life.As with the Call2Recycle battery recycling, the cost of the program is built into the cost of the batteries. You’re paying for it whether you use it or not.* The environmental costs of product manufacture, use, and disposal should be minimized, to the greatest extent possible, for local and state governments, and ultimately shifted to the manufacturers and consumers of products. * Manufacturers should thus have a direct financial incentive to redesign their products to reduce these costs.
- #36 Those that are responsible for reducing the health and environmental impacts of products should have flexibility in determining how to most effectively address those impacts. The performance of company’s product stewardship programs will be measured by their results.Policies that promote and implement product stewardship principles should create incentives for the manufacturer to design and produce “cleaner” products – products made using less energy, materials, and toxins, and which result in less waste (through reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting) and use less energy to operate. These policies should also create incentives for the development of a sustainable and environmentally-sound system to collect, reuse, and recycle products at the end of their lives. In realizing these principles, Government will also provide leadership in promoting the practices of product stewardship through procurement, technical assistance, program evaluation, education, market development, agency coordination, and by addressing regulatory barriers and, where necessary, providing regulatory incentives and disincentives. Industry and government shall provide – and consumers should take full advantage of – information needed to make responsible environmental purchasing, reuse, recycling, and disposal decisions.
- #37 {read slide} We are not trying to recreate the wheel, just perfect it. We know that most people don’t have much free time anymore and so Product Stewardship has to be simple for the consumer.
- #38 In studying product stewardship in Nebraska, we’ve learned some things.First, Nebraska’s practice of government-funded collection programs is not full product stewardship because it does not share proportional responsibility with industry.And the current system places all of the financial burden on Nebraska tax payers.Current voluntary programs do provide infrastructure for future industry operated product stewardship programsWe’ve got a great start to product stewardship here in Nebraska. And through the Product Stewardship initiative, several opportunities are available to participate in national voluntary product stewardship programs.
- #39 WasteCap Nebraska has already begun to lay the foundation of Product Stewardship through partnerships with other agencies, a grant from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, Nebraska Environmental Trust, and assistance from the Product Stewardship Institute.Weknew that it was critical to know and understand our foundation. We identified what was already happening in Nebraska and we established a baseline of current activities in the state. From here we must build more product stewardship programs.
- #40 This is why we have developed the Nebraska Product Stewardship Toolkit. This online toolkit will help any business or community begin the transformation to product stewardship. It outlines what responsibilities each of us has in the product life-cycle and shows us how to take action.
- #41 It’s going to take all of us to make this happen. Local business, governments, health and environmental organizations, and you.
- #42 We can all help to make a difference. Take advantage of the voluntary programs that are already out there. Talk to your favorite retailers about product stewardship. Tell them you’d like to participate in programs they establish.
- #43 And be a responsible consumer. Buy better products, that are durable, perhaps used, and products that don’t contain toxins but that are made from recycled materials. Once you’re done with the product, resell it, reuse it, recycle it, or safely dispose of it.
- #44 WasteCap Nebraska is here to help you develop your product stewardship program in a common sense way. We offer several programs to help your business be an environmentally conscious business.
- #45 We currently offer several programs that can already help your business become more profitable and environmentally aware. The programs are also outlined on our blue program summary sheet. I have several available for you to take with you. {read the programs/describe them}
- #46 {read and describe programs}
- #47 {read and describe the programs}
- #48 WasteCap Nebraska is a non-profit organization that works with businesses across the state of Nebraska to improve environmental practices and increase profit. We would love to welcome each of you as a member to WasteCap. Memberships are very affordable and as a member you are able to take part in all of our programs at little or NO charge. If you are interested in membership, please see me after the presentation. There is no cost to join today. I’ll simply take down your information and our membership director will be in contact with you.
- #49 For more information on everything presented today and to get more ideas on what you can do, please visit the Nebraska Product Stewardship Toolkit online. Visit our website for the link to the toolkit.
- #50 You’ve received a lot of information today. And you may be wondering to yourself, “What am I supposed to do?” I want you to start small. Don’t overwhelm yourself. You can start by simply talking to your political representatives. Or start your own product stewardship program in your business. Start with Another Bright Idea or Call to Recycle. You don’t have to do anything complicated to begin. You can also host an E-Scrap collection event, & WasteCap will be here to help you with that. And finally, talk to the retailers you do business with and ask them to start product stewardship programs.
- #51 I’d be happy to take any of your questions.Thank you again for having me today. If you are interested in receiving any of our services or becoming a WasteCap Nebraska member, I do have information available today.