New legislation establishing a national regime of product stewardship in Australia commenced on 8 August 2011 and is expected to have significant consequences for business.

The new law establishes a national framework to manage the environmental, health and safety impacts of products across their lifecycle from production, handling, purchase, use and disposal. The framewowk is designed to encourage manufacturers, importers, distributors and other involved participants in a products lifecycle to take responsibility for these products.

The Product Stewardship Act 2011 (Act) prescribes a national framework to support voluntary, co-regulatory and regulatory (mandatory) product stewardship and extended producer responsibility schemes. Under the Act, a product stewardship framework is established and will comprise 3 levels of product stewardship, namely: (1) voluntary; (2) co-regulatory; and (3) mandatory. The voluntary scheme is intended to encourage product stewardship without the need for regulatory intervention. There will be audit and reporting obligations to promote transparency and accountability under this scheme. Industry will be responsible for compliance with the outcomes and fundamental operational requirements to be specified in the regulations to the new laws under the co-regulatory scheme. Finally, the regulatory or mandatory scheme will impose set obligations for parties to take certain actions in relation to their product which may include, for instance, product labelling, the return of products to producers at the end of the product life cycle or refunds and deposits being applied to products.

The Act contains provisions for a range of sanctions for non-compliance with the new obligations including civil and criminal penalties, enforceable undertakings and infringement notices. The monetary penalty regime under the Act will apply to individuals and corporations.

Televisions and computer products will be the first series of products covered and a related scheme for these products is planned for introduction in late 2011. Under this scheme, manufacturers, importers and suppliers of televisions, computers and computer peripherals will be required to fund and implement national collection and recycling systems. Regulations will be released to support and provide guidance for those covered by the scheme.

The introduction of the new laws and regulations is expected to provide significant and on-going implications for most businesses particularly, manufacturers, producers, importers, financiers and banking institutions.

Further information on the Act and impending regulations will be provided by Prestige Legal & Corporate Services as it is made available for circulation.  Please contact our Legal Director & Principal Consultant, Robert Nicholls, for more information or further enquiries regarding this publication.

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