1000 Flowers for the Planet - #493 Demand Product Stewardship

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #493 Demand Product Stewardship

The best explanation for this Flower suggestion comes from http://www.thesecretlifeofthings.com/#!product_stewardship/c1qvp

Product Stewardship is about taking responsibility for the entire life of product, specifically its disposal. It encourages all of the participants involved in a products life cycle to take shared responsibility for the impacts to human health and the natural environment resulting from a products production, use and end of life.

 There are three key features of product stewardship:
       1.Shifting the burden of waste management (either physically and/or       
          economically, fully or partially) upstream, away from municipalities and
          consumers and back to the producers
       2.Providing incentives to producers to design-in environmental
          considerations through eco-design
       3.Recovering valuable materials that would otherwise be lost to landfill.

​​How does it work?

The product stewardship approach gives manufacturers incentives to take responsibility for the entire life-cycle impacts of their products, including packaging. Product stewardship requires companies to take back their products at the end of life. It inspires companies to address energy and material consumption, air and water emissions, the amount of toxins used, worker safety and waste disposal options. If all these impacts are taken into consideration from the design stage of a products development, then products will be created with a reduced social and environmental impact, and will be easier to recycle at the end of life.

So demand product stewardship wherever you can to ensure we improve the way we do things and benefit the planet.