Webinar: A Crash Course in Product Stewardship

Over the past decade, a concept called product stewardship has taken hold in the United States. Product stewardship is a policy that directs all those involved in the lifecycle of a product to take responsibility for minimizing the impacts to human health and the natural environment that result from the production, use, and end of life management of that product. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a central tenet of product stewardship, in which the producer’s responsibility for their product extends to the post-consumer management of that product and its packaging.

Retailers have a special role to play by selling environmentally preferable products, educating their customers about product impacts and how best to manage them when they are no longer usable, and to voluntarily collect products to provide a convenient way for consumers to take important actions that will conserve resources and safely manage unusable products.

RILA will host a special call with one of the founders of the U.S. product stewardship movement, Scott Cassel, Executive Director of the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI). PSI is a national non-profit environmental institute with membership from 46 states, nearly 200 local governments, and more than 60 corporate, organizational, academic, and non-U.S. government partners. Mr. Cassel founded PSI in 2000 to reduce waste management costs for taxpayers, reduce the environmental impacts from consumer products, and take advantage of the economic benefits of increased recycling and resource conservation. PSI takes a unique collaborative approach to developing product stewardship programs, regulations, and legislation at all levels of government. RILA has been a PSI corporate partner for the past three years and has participated in many of PSI’s initiatives, including the national paint dialogue and the promotion of voluntary retail collection of fluorescent lamps and thermostats.

This call will include a presentation on the status of product stewardship legislation in the U.S. and the main drivers behind the movement. It will specifically focus on the role of retailers, which have taken a range of positions on product stewardship legislation. The purpose of this call is to engage in dialogue with Mr. Cassel, explaining RILA member positions, and seeking opportunities to collaborate on product stewardship initiatives, which PSI considers to include broader concepts of sustainability.

Date & Time
December 17, 2010, 2:00pm ET

Presenter
Scott Cassel, Executive Director/Founder, Product Stewardship Institute, Inc.

Recording & Materials