News & Events

GlobalPSC News – April 2015

New Zealand Feedback on Priority Waste Streams

The New Zealand Ministry for the Environment (MfE) has released a summary of submissions on its discussion paper on the prioritisation of waste streams for product stewardship intervention.

Stakeholders generally agreed with the MfE’s criteria for prioritisation but suggested weighting ‘risk of harm’ and ‘resource efficiency’ higher than other criteria. Stakeholders also generally agreed with the MfE’s proposed priority products (electronic and electrical equipment; tyres; agrichemicals and farm plastics; and refrigerants and other synthetic greenhouse gases), but recommended adding packaging and plastic bags for prioritisation.

Mike Mendonca of the MfE (pictured below) announced the summary’s release and reviewed its findings during the recent WasteMINZ Roundup in Auckland, which emphasised product stewardship. In a session with Mike and WasteMINZ Board Chair Darren Patterson, GlobalPSC CEO Russ Martin outlined overseas developments in product stewardship and their implications for New Zealand.

GlobalPSC Advisory Group members Helen Lewis of Helen Lewis Research and John Gertsakis of Infoactiv were also active participants in the Roundup discussions, as was Paul-Antoine Bontinck of the Vinyl Council of Australia.

Public consultations on priority products opened in May 2014.  The GlobalPSC submission developed in conjunction with our Advisory Group is available to GlobalPSC members via our Knowledge Base, under the Frameworks and Harmonisation heading.

 

Australia Consults on Potential Regulatory Changes to TV and Computer Recycling Scheme

The Australian Department of Environment is consulting on potential regulatory changes to the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme.

Possible changes include revised recovery targets, changes to conversion factors and scaling factors affecting liability under the scheme, and making the Australian Standard 5377 for the management and recycling of certain electrical and electronic items mandatory.

A brief discussion paper has been made available, and comments are invited until close of business 7 May, Australia time.

 

New GlobalPSC Members and Member Profiles

• Packaging SA (South Africa)
• Environment and Resources Consulting (Canada)

Member profiles and program updates are available here.

 

Events Update

The Global Product Stewardship Council is presenting at or participating in the following events:

• World Resources Forum Asia-Pacific and International Sustainability Symposium, 1-3 June in Sydney, Australia
• Stewardship 2015, 1-3 June in Salt Lake City, USA
• Conference on Canadian Stewardship, 30 September–2 October 2015 in Banff, Canada

At these events, we will be promoting the involvement of GlobalPSC members and our activities.

 

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