About the California Product Stewardship Council

From the Executive Director

Welcome to the CPSC website! Our goals for the website are threefold: 1) To educate you about Product Stewardship 2) To inspire you to action 3) Provide the tools to take action. We will have done our job and achieved our goals if each and every one of you finds the information and answers you are seeking as you navigate through our website. If you do not, please let me know what we can do to enhance the website by e-mailing me at heidi@caproductstewardship.org.

We are an organization driven by local governments and we work closely with our “partners” including waste and recycling companies, non-profits, water quality organizations, businesses of all types, and, most importantly, product consumers who are working together to reduce waste and bring good public policy to the materials management industry.

We encourage your input and thank you in advance for your support!

With gratitude,

Heidi

Carol Misseldine Receives "Founders Award"

CPSC’s current Executive Director Heidi Sanborn presents Carol Misseldine with a “Founders Award” made of 100% recycled glass with the following inscription:
“Thank you for your leadership in bringing product stewardship to California.”
For almost two years, Carol worked to launch CPSC and make it an official organization. Carol is now a sustainability consultant with a primary focus on cities. In addition to serving as Sustainability Director for the City of Mill Valley, she is Coordinator for Green Cities California, a collaborative organization of high performance cities which is highly supportive of EPR. In receiving the award, Carol said, "I'm deeply honored to be acknowledged in such a beautiful way for my role in helping to launch CPSC. It's an even greater honor to witness the transformative effect CPSC is having in bringing EPR to California." Carol can be reached at cmisseldine@comcast.net.

CPSC’s Vision Statement for California’s Waste Management Future

Producers have the primary responsibility to establish, fund, and manage end of life systems for their products with State government setting the performance goals and ensuring accountability and transparency.

Mission

To shift California’s product waste management system from one focused on government funded and ratepayer financed waste diversion to one that relies on producer responsibility in order to reduce public costs and drive improvements in product design that promote environmental sustainability.

CPSC Policies

• Framework EPR Policy 6/4/2008
• State Preemption of Local Government 3/14/2007

CPSC Objectives

1. Build capacity and knowledge among local governments, and build relationships with stakeholders, to bring about producer financed and managed systems for product discards, including, but not restricted to, products covered by the Universal Waste Ban.
   
2. Provide a forum for the exchange of information regarding existing and proposed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs.
   
3. Develop and recommend practical local and statewide EPR policy and educational tools such as model ordinances and legislation, newsletters, articles, policy briefings, etc.
   
4. Provide effective leadership on EPR initiatives in California and develop a prioritized list, with timelines, of future EPR programs.
   
5. Educate elected and appointed officials and other decision makers on the benefits to local government of EPR.

Why Does CPSC Exist?

These articles describe the immediate reasons for forming the California Product Stewardship Council: the statewide ban on putting common household hazardous products ("Universal Waste") in the trash; recognition that local governments have neither the capacity nor funding to deal with toxic, disposable spent products; and news of successes by local governments organizing for full producer responsibility state legislation in Washington State.

• 600 Million and Counting Feb 2007
  Press Release on Year 1 of the U-Waste Disposal Ban and formation of CPSC
• Perfect Storm for EPR in California May 2006
  How EPR is sweeping down the West Coast of North America and why the Universal Waste products disposal ban created the “perfect storm” for local governmetns to take action. By Product Policy Institute.
• ‘Universal Waste’ Disposal Ban: A Financial Crisis for California’s Local Governments Feb 2007
  Fact steet by CPSC.
• Local Governments’ Looming Fiscal Crisis: Household Hazardous Products and the Need for Extended Producer Responsibility 2006
  An examination of the fiscal impacts to local government of enforcing the U-waste hazardsous products disposal ban. By Rob D'Arcy, Santa Clara County.
• What are "Universal Waste" products?
  
  
  • Wastes Banned from the Trash CIWMB 5/26/2006
  • Managing Universal Waste in California DTSC June 2003