Perspectives on Product Stewardship

The massive increase in consumer product waste, its toxicity, and the complexity of materials have created an unbearable financial and management burden for municipal officials-it has become untenable. We have outgrown the era of municipalities being solely responsible for recycling. A paradigm shift is needed. The concepts of Extended Producer Responsibility and Product Stewardship play a significant role in bringing our consumption of natural resources and emission of greenhouse gases back into balance with the earth’s ability to absorb these impacts. Perspectives on Product Stewardship provides an overview on managing products throughout their life cycles in order to conserve resources, decrease environmental impact, and share the burden of responsibility. It gives the reader a broad understanding of the origins and evolution of the rapidly expanding field of product stewardship and extended producer responsibility, while providing exemplary and precautionary case studies-on paint, batteries, and packaging. Informative and timely, this reference will be useful to anyone engaged in, or embarking on, efforts to reduce impacts from consumer products: producers, retailers, waste management professionals, recyclers, governments, environmental advocates, students, and the public. SCOTT CASSEL is the founder and chief executive officer of the Product Stewardship Institute, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing lifecycle impacts of consumer products. He has more than 40 years of solid waste management experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Cassel is past president and founding board member of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association and is on the founding board of the Marine Debris Foundation.

Scott Cassel, MCP, is founder and serves as chief executive officer of the Product Stewardship Institute, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing lifecycle impacts of consumer products. He has more than 30 years of solid waste management experience. Cassel is past president of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association (NAHMMA) and former director of Waste Policy and Planning for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. He has also worked for a private solid waste management company and a statewide environmental group. He lives in Massachusetts. Amy Cabaniss, PhD, MBA, has more than 30 years of experience as an environmental educator with applied research in conservation psychology. As adjunct faculty in the School of Business MBA Program at Southern Connecticut Stat’e University. Cabaniss teaches Business Ecology and Sustainability and The Research Project. She is the editor of Handbook on Household Hazardous Waste (Bernan Press). She is the past president of NAHMMA--Northeast Chapter and a former NAHMMA board member.She lives in Connecticut.