Product Stewardship Council

 

Background

The need for the Product Stewardship Council arose in industry forum discussions – however these discussions needed to be expanded to cover a broader base of industries so as to increase transparency, accountability and dissemination of information on the development and implementation of product stewardship schemes. In Australia, in particular, industries that understand the need to develop product stewardship and extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes must invest in obtaining applicable information on establishing entities such as producer responsibility organisations (PROs), development of levies, etc. and often duplicate previous research. Where resources are committed to understanding and developing product stewardship schemes, resulting information is rarely disseminated in an objective, accessible manner. Governments and policy makers often require industry to develop product stewardship schemes and often provide little guidance in the development of such schemes. Further, non-Government organisations (NGOs) have limited resources to assist in the development of product stewardship schemes, and are especially critical of schemes developed without their involvement. The result is that for product stewardship, most available information is strongly slanted to one perspective or another.

 

Current Activities

Product Stewardship Council has been established as an incorporated association in NSW with the following aims:

recognition for excellence in independence and contribution to the development of product stewardship;

transparent and accountable basis for raising of funds for research to investigate and develop product stewardship schemes in an objective manner;

facilitation of product stewardship scheme development;

linkage to other relevant organisations (European, Canadian and American product stewardship programs, for example).

The council is presently establishing the following arrangements:

tax exempt status as a resource development non profit organisation with the Australian Taxation Office;

settle on model rules for the association consistent with the council’s objectives;

establish range of potential member services.

 

Proposed Activities

The council proposes to establish an advisory board to:

set membership services and fees;

review funding arrangements from grant applications;

establish policy for granting funds for research projects for product stewardship.