What Is Product Stewardship?
Product Stewardship is a management tool or strategy that ties the producer, product designer, seller, and user of a consumer product to the product’s impact on the environment incorporating manufacture, use, and final deposition. The life cycle of a product is greatly affected by the manufacturer, its design and materials selected. Impacts can occur throughout the lifecycle of a product and its packaging, and are associated with energy and materials consumption; waste generation; toxic substances; greenhouse gases; and other air and water emissions.
In a product stewardship approach, manufacturers that design products and specify packaging have the greatest ability, and therefore greatest responsibility, to reduce these impacts by attempting to incorporate the full lifecycle costs into the cost of doing business.