The document discusses how the current system provides little incentive for companies to design more sustainable products. It notes that Americans throw away about 1,600 pounds of trash per year, consisting of products and packaging. When materials are disposed of instead of recycled, more virgin resources must be extracted to make new products, consuming energy and causing environmental impacts. Some products also contain toxins or pose other issues when disposed of as waste. The document concludes that governments spend millions managing waste but cannot solve the problem of problematic product and packaging waste alone without help from other groups.

1. Every day we each
use
hundreds
of products
Prepared by the Product Stewardship
Institute

2. Many of these
products – and
their packaging –
impact the
environment and
health in
unintended ways
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

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
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

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.
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

6. Some products contain toxic substances
that can be released to the environment
in the waste stream…
Prepared by the Product Stewardship
Institute

7. Some products are associated
.
with other unintended
impacts…such as drug abuse or
hazards to workers…
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

8. Still other
products may
pose operational
challenges in the
waste stream.
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

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

11. Government and
taxpayers
can’t
solve this
problem
alone…
Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute