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 CPSC is reaching out to all stakeholders to ensure that everybody's voice is heard. Producers, manufacturers and retailers have unique concerns about the process that must be incorporated if EPR is to be successful. Many businesses voluntarily support EPR and prove it through their own innovative design and internal directives.
Producers and manufacturers can really make a difference because they control production. Here's how:
- Green Design
Design products that can be more easily recycled.
- Use Non-Toxic Materials
Use low or no toxicity materials that are not hazardous to human health and the environment.
- Use recycled materials in the product and product packaging's design
- Clean Production
Making sure manufacturing facilities and production methods reduce waste and reduce air and water pollution.
- Conserve Resources
From design, to production, to packaging, to distribution, manufacturers can evaluate their processes to conserve resources such as energy, water, and fuel.
- Offer the Product as a Service
Offer leasing whenever applicable. True, you can't lease everything, but there are so many products that consumers, especially buyers for business and government, really only want to use, rather than to own. Examples: electronics, office equipment, furniture, and vehicles. The key is to take it back at the end of the lease so the product can be refurbished or recycled.
- Product Take-Back
Many products have special handling requirements at the end-of-life because they have toxic components or pose a danger to human health and the environment such as computers, televisions, batteries, fluorescent lights, sharps (needles, syringes, lancets, etc.) and mercury thermostats. Honeywell is a shining example of a business understanding and taking responsibility for its products. In fact, Honeywell one of the nation's largest manufacturers of thermostats, voluntarily helped sponsor California's mercury thermostat legislation, AB2347. See Thermostats
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