ARTICLE · 26 JULY 2011

Federal government passes new product stewardship legislation - what next?

Clayton Utz

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The Product Stewardship Act provides umbrella provisions with specific schemes in its regulations.

AustraliaEnvironment

Rebecca Hawke

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Key Points:
On 22 June, the Federal parliament passed the Product Stewardship Act (Act). The Act provides the umbrella provisions for product stewardship in Australia. Details of product-specific schemes will be in underlying regulations.

In our article of 5 April, "Getting real about e-waste: new consultation paper on product stewardship", we set out some of the key aspects of the proposed E-Waste Scheme. In this article, we take a more detailed look at the new Act, the implications for the E-Waste Scheme and the future of product stewardship in Australia.

Product stewardship legislation framework

The Act sets out a national legislative framework for product stewardship schemes which may cover any number of types of products.

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