These slides give a brief overview of the problems posed by the unintended impacts of consumer products and packaging.

2. Every day we each use hundreds of products Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

3. Under the current system there is a lack of incentive to design better products there is no cost to business to continue to throw away more and more material there are no incentives to create products that last longer or are more easily recycled Currently many goods are designed to be obsolete in just a few years. Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

4. Many of these products – and their packaging – impact the environment and health in unintended ways Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

5. For one thing, this results in a lot of stuff … … each American throws away about 1,600 pounds of trash every year, much of it products and packaging! Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

6. When we dispose of materials, instead of recycling them, we need to extract more virgin resources to make new products…which consumes energy and can cause other environmental impacts. Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

7. Some products contain toxic substances that can be released to the environment in the waste stream… Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

8. . Some products are associated with other unintended impacts…such as drug abuse or hazards to workers… Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

9. Still other products may pose operational challenges in the waste stream. Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

10. Today, we look to local governments to manage this increasingly complex waste stream… Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

11. This costs money! In 2009, Nebraska spent an estimated $2 million tax dollars to manage household hazardous waste… … and they weren’t able to collect all the problematic product & packaging waste that was out there. Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute

12. Government and Prepared by the Product Stewardship Institute taxpayers can’t solve this problem alone…