Product Stewardship
Product
stewardship occurs when companies take responsibility for the whole
life of their products and packaging. The following are a few companies
who are acting as product stewards by voluntarily using less resources and
more recyclable ones:
 Lever Soap - Lever
packages their soap in a cardboard box, which is recyclable. Such a simple
change in packaging can divert valuable resources from the landfill to the
recycling plants for reuse. Unlike Lever, Irish Spring puts their soap in
a box, and then puts plastic wrapping around it that cannot be recycled.
If Lever does not need the plastic, why does Irish Spring?
Mr. Christie - This company packages its Chips Ahoy
cookies inside a bag (non-recyclable), and a tray (recyclable.) Though Mr.
Christie's has not entirely diverted the packaging of its cookies, this is
a start. President's Choice packages their cookies in a bag, tray, and
then seals their cookies in a plastic bag. If Mr. Christie doesn't need
the plastic to keep their cookies fresh, why does President's Choice have
to do this?
Quaker Oats - Their outside cardboard box can be
recycled. The mini paper packages that hold each individual wrapped
oatmeal flavour (maple and brown sugar, baked apple, cinnamon roll,
peaches and cream, and regular…Yummy!), can also be recycled! Now that's
impressive. This is a no waste product!
Nabisco - Here's another great cereal product. While
most cereals come in an outside cardboard box and a plastic wrapper that
cannot be recycled, Nabisco puts their shredded wheat in paper packages
that can be recycled. Why can't other cereal companies use paper
packaging? Remember what we said in our natural resource section. Try to
use renewable resources for packaging instead of non-renewable
resources.
Nestle - Chocolates are good. Our class lives for
chocolate. It's one of our … uh, five food groups. We'll admit it. We're
chocoholics, but we can't eat most chocolates without making waste - the
plastic wrappers go straight in the garbage. Thanks Nestle for putting
smarties in a box that can be recycled. Why can't other companies follow
their lead?
 If some companies can cut down on their
packaging, shouldn't others try as well? It can also save money - just ask
Quaker Oats. After doing a waste audit, they found they could reduce the
garbage they create and they saved close to one million dollars! Yikes,
that's a lot of dough. I wonder how many bags of chips and chocolate bars
our class could buy with that money.
We think that once manufacturers realize the benefits that Zero Waste's
philosophies offer, they will automatically turn towards product
stewardship. In order for companies to apply Zero Waste, they must be told
of its value.
That is what our class is trying to do. Each of us has already sent a
letter to a company. That's 30 letters. So far, we've only heard back from
Mother Parker's Coffee, and President's Choice. Neither company has
addressed our concerns yet, but don't worry, we're not giving up yet.
Changes and differences start with small groups like us and eventually
spread like wild fire. We should continue to write to companies and tell
them to stop making so much waste. If we believe, we'll achieve so join us
in the race to zero waste!
These are just some of the products that we think are good examples of
a company following product stewardship. E-mail us if you think there are
other examples that should go on
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