Environment quality

Waste management

Product Stewardship

Product Stewardship is an approach that acknowledges that all those involved in producing, manufacturing, selling, using and disposing of products have a shared responsibility to ensure their environmentally sound management.

Co-regulatory Frameworks for Product Stewardship

In December 2004, all Australian Environment Ministers, working together as the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC), released a discussion paper titled Co-regulatory Frameworks for Product Stewardship. This paper sets out one option to support voluntary industry-led product stewardship schemes, such as those proposed by the television and tyre industries, with regulation.

This 'safety-net' regulation would be designed to ensure that companies are not competitively disadvantaged by 'doing the right thing'. It would achieve this by ensuring all businesses dealing in the targeted products achieve at least the same environmental outcomes. This paper was open for public comment until 25 February 2005. Feedback will be used to inform governments' future work on co-regulation. Further information can be obtained from shaneen.coulson@environment.gov.au.

More product stewardship initiatives

Key

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