July 10, 2020
Liam Taylor
The Australian Government recently announced a new fund aimed at creating and expanding product stewardship schemes. What does this mean and how does product stewardship encourage positive environmental outcomes?
The Australian Government this week announced the creation of the Product Stewardship Investment Fund, a $20 million initiative aiming to encourage manufacturers, retailers and industry groups to take more responsibility for the entire life cycle of the products they produce and sell.
Grants of up to $1 million will be available for individual applicants to expand existing stewardship schemes or develop new ones, with first round applications opening Thursday July 9, 2020.
The announcement comes off the back of the Review of the Product Stewardship Act, a consultative process between government, industry and community groups. Planet Ark was intimately involved in providing feedback and advice throughout the entire process and is very pleased to see this work coming to fruition.
The Government is supporting all 26 recommendations submitted to improve product stewardship in Australia including:
Product stewardship schemes (also known as extended producer responsibility) help share the cost of managing the end of life of a product among industry, government and consumers.
Generally, the cost of waste is either borne by the consumer, governments and councils as clean-up and landfill costs or by the environment when mismanaged. Product stewardship addresses this by putting greater responsibility on the party capable of having the largest positive impact, usually the manufacturer, retailer or importer.
Stewardship schemes work to minimise the health and environmental impact of a product over its entire lifecycle from design, production, distribution, sale and use to disposal, reuse, recovery and recycling.
There are a number of product stewardship schemes currently operating in Australia under different models, including co-regulatory and voluntary product stewardship schemes. These include:
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Prior to joining Planet Ark Liam spent his time studying global environmental issues, travelling Southeast Asia on the cheap and working for a sustainable property management company in Bali, Indonesia. Joining the communications team at Planet Ark, he hopes to inspire positive environmental behaviour through effective and positive messaging.
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