Pharmaceuticals present both a public safety and environmental hazard if no secure disposal options exist. Therefore, a safe collection and disposal alternative is necessary. Such a collection infrastructure will only work if Product Stewardship is integral to the design whereby residential customers can “take-back” pharmaceuticals to local pharmacies and drug stores.

Paint manufacturers and retailers are using product stewardship principles to design and market their products to create minimal impact on the environment and to reduce wasted paint during and after the life of the product. Manufacturers, retailers, and others can make a difference through:

There are many ways to increase beverage container recycling. One way is to provide the public with an incentive to return their containers in the form of a deposit. With a cash value on each container, consumers have an incentive to return their containers for the redemption value regardless of where they are when they finish it. The ten states with container deposits are recycling more bottles and cans than the other 40 states combined and account for over 90% of the container recycling that occurs.

Product stewardship is the concept that recognizes that all parties involved in the lifecycle of a product are responsible for minimizing the environmental impacts of that product. The greater the ability an entity has to minimize a product's life-cycle impacts, the greater is its degree of responsibility, and opportunity, for addressing those impacts.

Designers, manufacturers and producers should take responsibility for minimizing the environmental and health impacts of their products. Where no alternatives to toxic components and ingredients exist, the producer should be responsible for assisting in the management of the product at the end of life. Policies that restrict toxic chemicals and promote safer alternatives result in safer products that are easier to reuse and recycle. Chemical policy reform should:

Various stakeholders in Washington and Oregon worked during the past decade to increase public agency purchasing of recycled-content carpet and recycle discarded carpet in the region. In 2002, the Washington Department of Ecology and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality were among the 22 state signatories, along with leaders in the carpet industry, to the National Carpet Stewardship Memorandum of Understanding.