1. Introduction
The New Zealand Government is developing product stewardship policy. To date, the Government's approach has been to encourage voluntary, industry-led product stewardship schemes.
A discussion document released in 2005 set out options for modifications to this approach. Key to these modifications is the potential for more formal regulation to make schemes more effective and stable.
Key stakeholders in the New Zealand agricultural chemical industry (including growers, retailers, brand owners, local and central government) have been developing a voluntary industry-wide product stewardship scheme for used chemical containers.
This report provides a case study of the proposed Agrecovery container recovery programme. It examines the potential impact that product stewardship legislation might have on this product stewardship scheme from the perspective of brand owners and stakeholders in Agrecovery.
This report provides:
- a description of the agrichemical industry and market in New Zealand;
- an overview of the issues surrounding the disposal of agrichemical containers;
- a brief review of overseas product stewardship experiences within this sector;
- a description of the proposed Agrecovery programme;
- an analysis of Agrecovery against the government's policy objectives;
- a review of how product stewardship legislation might help the Agrecovery programme.
