Producer responsibility is key to a future with zero waste

By now you have probably heard talk about zero waste, the concept that waste is preventable not inevitable.

But perhaps you haven't heard more than a brief mention about one of the largest components of the concept - producer responsibility.

Producer responsibility requires manufacturers to be accountable for their products throughout the entire life cycle. It starts with the extraction of raw materials and continues to the disposal of the product.

It encourages producers to ultimately redesign their products with fewer toxins and to make products that are more durable, reusable, repairable, recyclable and that use recycled material in the construction.

Producer responsibility considers human health as well, including the health and safety of the workers in the factories. Even more, it creates jobs. Additional workers are needed to redesign, disassemble, repair and recycle the products.

Several companies have taken steps to be responsible for their products from "cradle to grave" without any legislation that would force them to do so.

Interface Inc., the world's largest carpet manufacturer, set a goal "to take nothing from the Earth that is not renewable and do no harm to the biosphere."

To that end they recycle old carpet fibers into new ones and have established a carpet rental and service program that replaces carpet by the section rather than the whole carpet.

Their products have resulted in an overall energy savings of 70 percent, waste reduction of 90 percent and $90 million in savings worldwide. And they continue to research and develop innovative products.

Xerox adopted a waste-free factory policy over a decade ago. The policy helped Xerox to save $47 million in 1999 alone.

They have redesigned their products to be disassembled, remanufactured, reused and recycled - keeping 143 million pounds of waste out of landfills in 2002. Their energy efficient products have helped customers to save a million hours of electricity.

Fetzer Vineyards is aiming for zero waste by 2009 and it has cut waste by 94 percent already.

One hundred percent of its vineyards are certified organic and the waste water from the winemaking process is filtered and used to water the vineyards.

The majority of waste - mostly grape seeds and cork - is composted. Fetzer also makes use of solar power in its buildings. And the wine is sold in recycled glass bottles and cardboard boxes.

There are many other companies taking steps toward sustainability including Mercedes, Epson, Pillsbury, Lowell Paul Dairy, Huber Beer, New Belgium Brewery, Lexmark, BioCorp, Hewlett Packard, Amdahl, Collins & Aikman, Ricoh, Sony, Toyota, Honda, Kimberly Clark and more.

Locally companies such as Conscious Coffees (Breckenridge Coffee Roasters) are making an effort by offering organic, shade-grown and fair-trade coffee.

The key to producer responsibility is that it makes the manufacturer responsible.

Any programs that distribute the responsibility among the producers, distributors, retailers and local governments will not be effective. The manufacturers (producers) are the only ones that can redesign their products for easy disassembly and with recycled content.

They are the only ones that can create products made to be repaired and updated rather than just trashed.

This is not to say that the consumer does not still play an important role in waste reduction - we still have the responsibility to reduce, reuse and recycle.

We also have the responsibility to support efforts to move toward produce responsibility and to use our dollars as our votes by supporting companies that are being responsible.



Holly Kingsley is the education coordinator for Summit Recycling

Project.