Product Stewardship

Product stewardship is a practice in which the fiscal and physical responsibility for the disposal of a product and other associated environmental harms of product production are designated as the responsibility of all parties involved in the product supply chain. Parties [Page 331]in the product supply chain include manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. Levels of responsibility for product stewardship practices generally increase depending upon the degree to which each responsible party can reduce environmental harm. Product stewardship recognizes that the reduction of environmental impacts of a product requires cooperation and action from all parties along the supply chain through the product's end of life.

Product stewardship is often described in conjunction with—or as a form of—extended producer responsibility. Extended producer responsibility is a practice or policy approach ...