Historically, federal, state and local government have managed environmental issues through regulation, assessing potential harm to human health and instituting policies that minimize risks.\u00a0 The result has been both environmental and human health protection governed by a myriad of requirements, reports and restrictions.\u00a0 The aspiration of product stewardship \u2013 seeking \u201cproducers\u201d of products to influence consumer behavior, finance the end of life disposal of products and improve the design of their products \u2013 has also been translated into law and regulation in many states and provinces. While the goal of product stewardship \u2013 zero waste \u2013 is almost always beyond reproach, using the regulatory process is arguably not.<\/p>\n
Consumer behavior change is not typically achievable through comprehensive regulation unless there is an immediate danger to human health (think cigarettes). \u00a0Government needs to take a lighter hand with regulation and a more prominent role as an enabler.<\/p>\n
Consumers don\u2019t believe product manufacturers\u2019 green claims and don\u2019t consider them to be credible sources for environmental information on issues like recycling. \u00a0Expos\u00e9s on \u201cgreen-washing\u201d (see the Sins of Green-Washing \u2013<a href=\u201dhttp:\/\/www.sinsofgreenwashing.org<\/a>\u201d <\/strong>target=\u201d_blank\u201d) routinely illustrate this concern.\u00a0 In fact, government information has shown to have the greatest credibility regarding environmental information among consumers.\u00a0 It\u2019s a task that government cannot abdicate as part of broader efforts to make manufacturers more responsible for the products they put into the marketplace.\u00a0 Governments must partner with product stewardship programs to change behaviors.<\/p>\n Read the complete article at Environmental Leader<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Historically, federal, state and local government have managed environmental issues through regulation, assessing potential harm to human health and instituting policies that minimize risks.\u00a0 The result has been both environmental and human health protection governed by a myriad of requirements, reports and restrictions.\u00a0 The aspiration of product stewardship \u2013 seeking \u201cproducers\u201d of products to influence … Continue reading Enabling Product Stewardship<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unrbep.org\/dealerportal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unrbep.org\/dealerportal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unrbep.org\/dealerportal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unrbep.org\/dealerportal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unrbep.org\/dealerportal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3988"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unrbep.org\/dealerportal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3990,"href":"https:\/\/unrbep.org\/dealerportal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988\/revisions\/3990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unrbep.org\/dealerportal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unrbep.org\/dealerportal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unrbep.org\/dealerportal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}