Product Stewardship Definitions

These terms are frequently used on our web site. Use the drop-down list to find a term or scroll down the page for all definitions.

If you see a term used on this web site that you'd like us to define, please let us know.

ARF

Advanced Recycling Fee (ARF). A fee paid at the point of purchase which funds the eventual recycling costs for the product. Sometimes referred to as an Advanced Disposal Fee (ADF).

CalRecycle

California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, formerly CIWMB

CFL

Compact Fluorescent Light

CIWMB

California Integrated Waste Management Board (as of 2010 known as CalRecycle). All documents completed prior to 2010 on the CPSC web site are labeled as CIWMB.

CPSC Associate

CPSC's Associates are local governments, their associations and organizations related to solid waste, recycling, resource conservation, environmental protection, water quality, and other cross-media (water, waste, air, etc.) issues who have signed the CPSC Pledge.

CPSC Partner

Partners CPSC's Partners are non-government organizations, individuals, and businesses across California who form a network supporting product stewardship and extended producer responsibility (EPR) and who have signed the CPSC Pledge.

CPSC Stakeholder

Anyone who is interested in this topic is a CPSC Stakeholder, including the press, producers, retailers, recyclers, haulers, and individuals.

Cradle to Cradle

This framework seeks to create production techniques that are not just efficient but are essentially waste free. In cradle to cradle production all material inputs and outputs are seen either as technical or biological nutrients. Technical nutrients can be recycled or reused with no loss of quality and biological nutrients composted or consumed. By contrast cradle to grave refers to a company taking responsibility for the disposal of goods it has produced, but not necessarily putting products' constituent components back into service.

CRRA

California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA) is a non-profit 501(C)3 organization dedicated to promoting waste reduction, reuse, recycling, pollution prevention, and composting.

CRT

Cathode ray tube. A vacuum tube or picture tube used to convert an electrical signal into a visual image.

CRV

California Refund Value (CRV). Consumers pay CRV when they purchase covered beverages from a retailer. The fee is refunded when the consumer redeems the containers at a recycling center.

DOC

California State Department of Conservation

DTSC

California State Department of Toxic Substances Control

Eco-Fee*

Term used in British Columbia and most of Canada to describe a fee put on products at the point of sale to cover recycling costs. An eco-fee is a set amount paid on each item to a third party, often referred to as a stewardship organization. The stewardship organization then uses the funds to establish a collection and recycling program on behalf of the producers. The eco-fee may or may not be visible to the consumer. It may be paid by the producer or by the retailer to the stewardship organization. A set eco-fee ensures that a producer will be able to pass on the cost of managing the product and ensures that the per-item cost to consumers is the same regardless of brand.

*Eco-fees should not be confused with government managed consumer fees often referred to as Advanced Recycling Fees (ARF) or Advanced Disposal Fees. In these systems the government agency is responsible for collecting and managing the fees as well as implementing and managing the collection and recycling program. Because the responsibilities lie with the government agency, these fees are not a form of extended producer responsibility or product stewardship, but rather a means to fund a government managed program. One example of this type of system is the tire management fees in place in many states.

End-of-Life Management

The management of a product after it becomes "waste." Management can include collection, reuse, recycling or disposal.

EPA

Federal Environmental Protection Agency

EPP

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, otherwise known as Green Purchasing, means the procurement or acquisition of goods and services that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing goods or services that serve the same purpose. This comparison shall take into consideration, to the extent feasible, raw materials acquisition, production, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, reuse, operation, maintenance, disposal, energy efficiency, product performance, durability, safety, the needs of the purchaser, and cost. (Source: California Dept. of General Services, What is EPP?)

EPR

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), otherwise known as Product Stewardship, is the extension of the responsibility of producers, and all entities involved in the product chain, to reduce the cradle-to-cradle impacts of a product and its packaging; the primary responsibility lies with the producer, or brand owner, who makes design and marketing decisions. (source: CalRecycle)

EPR Framework

EPR Framework is a comprehensive approach to implementing product stewardship that eliminates the need for product-by-product legislation. In California, the EPR Framework applies to the policy adopted by the CIWMB January 23, 2008.

Green Chemistry

The utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture, and application of chemical products (source: Anastas and Warner, Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice 1998)

Green Jobs

A green job, also called a green-collar job, is any job in an organization that provides a product or service that allows consumers to either consume less, either because of the lower price or greater efficiency, or produce more due to the utilization of this product or service, both of which actions reduce total energy use and environmental impact on the planet. (source: Wikipedia)

Green Purchasing

See Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

Green Seal Certification

Green Seal is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment and transforming the marketplace by promoting the manufacture, purchase, and use of environmentally responsible products and services. (source: Green Seal)

Greenwashing

Greenwash is a term used to describe the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly, such as by presenting cost cuts as reductions in use of resources. It is a deceptive use of green PR or green marketing. (source: Wikipedia)

Hazardous Waste

Substances which pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment, due to factors including, but not limited to, carcinogenicity, acute toxicity, chronic toxicity, bioaccumulative properties, or persistence in the environment, when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of, or otherwise managed. (CA Heath & Safety Code, Section 25141(2))

HHW

Household Hazardous Wastes (HHW) are any substances with the properties of Hazardous Waste, which are generated by households.

IPR

Individual producer responsibility (IPR) is a policy tool that makes producers financially and/or physically responsible for the end of life management of their own products. (source: Naoko Tojo, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economies, 2003)

PPI

Product Policy Institute (PPI) is a North American not-for-profit education technical assistance organization whose mission is to prevent waste and to promote sustainable production and consumption practices through good public policy and government.

Producers

Producers are the companies that manufacture or are the brand owners or first-importers of products for sale.

Product Stewardship

See EPR

RBRC

Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation is a nonprofit public service organization dedicated to rechargeable battery recycling and is funded by rechargeable battery manufacturers.

Stewardship Organization

An entity appointed by a producer to act as an agent on behalf of the producer to administer a product stewardship program

TRC

The Thermostat Recycling Corporation (TRC) is a not-for-profit corporation founded and operated by thermostat manufacturing companies.

Universal Waste

Any of the following wastes that are conditionally exempt from classification as hazardous wastes pursuant to section 66261.9 of the California Code of Regulations:

1. Batteries as described in section 66273.2;
2. Thermostats as described in section 66273.4;
3. Lamps as described in section 66273.5; and
4. Cathode ray tube materials as described in section 66273.6.

Zero Waste

Zero waste is based on the concept that wasting resources is inefficient and that efficient use of our natural resources is what we should work to achieve. It requires that we maximize our existing recycling and reuse efforts, while ensuring that products are designed for the environment and have the potential to be repaired, reused, or recycled. (source: CIWMB)