Product stewardship involves the shared responsibility for reducing the environmental, health and safety footprint of manufactured goods and materials across the life cycle of a product (including material streams). If you are an administrator of a voluntary product stewardship arrangement, you can apply to be accredited by the Australian Government.
Accreditation enables industry led product stewardship arrangements to demonstrate to businesses and consumers that the arrangement has the Australian Government’s stamp of approval.
This provides confidence that the arrangement’s environmental and human health outcomes have been verified and will contribute to Australia’s recycling and waste reduction objectives.
Changes to accreditation
The Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020 has improved the voluntary product stewardship framework. Changes to the framework:
- allow the minister to table a statement in Parliament regarding the operation, performance, and coverage of accredited arrangements
- reduce the cost of voluntary accreditation
- allow applications for accreditation to be submitted any time.
Benefits of accreditation
Logo
Our Australian Government product stewardship logo tells consumers that your product has the Government’s stamp of approval and contributes to a circular economy. The logo signals to the public that an arrangement:
✓ Is Australian Government accredited
✓ Achieves sustainable outcomes
✓ Aligns with circular economy principles
✓ Has high industry support
Other benefits for your business or industry include:
- a competitive advantage because the public knows that your industry has worked to reduce the negative impacts from its products
- demonstrating sustainability claims when competing in government procurement activities
- maximising the value of products and material streams.
Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence
The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence supports businesses reduce waste generation through better design and manufacture of products.
The centre will:
- provide mentoring and best practice guidance
- give technical, environmental, commercial, and legal advice
- help you build networks to support national industry-led schemes.
For more information on resources, programs, services, and events visit the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence website.
Accreditation period and cost
You can apply to be accredited for up to 5 years. The application fee for a new application is $5,900. The fee to renew your accreditation is $3,900. These fees cover our processing costs.
How to apply
Preparing your application
In preparing your application you should consider:
- how your arrangement will minimise waste, protect the environment or increase recycling rates
- if your arrangement is likely to result in a public benefit, and whether additional authorisation is required under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010
- the products and/or brands to be included under the arrangement
- whether the arrangement operates in more than one state or territory
- how the arrangement will manage other ‘like products’ that may be presented for collection but are not covered under the arrangement
- how you will monitor and evaluate the performance of the arrangement, for example collecting and managing data about arrangement outcomes such as increased recycling rates.
See our privacy and confidentiality notices.
Request an application form
Email PS.Accredit@dcceew.gov.au and ask for an application form.
Pay the application fee
Transfer the appropriate application fee to this account, using your organisation’s name as the description:
Name: DAWE EFT Account
BSB: 092009
A/C: 115859
Send an email to advise you have paid, including your receipt of payment, to AppropriationManagement@dcceew.gov.au
How we assess applications
We will assess applications against the criteria set out in the:
- Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020 (Act)
- Recycling and Waste Reduction (Product Stewardship – Accreditation of Voluntary Arrangements) Rules 2020 (rules)
To assess the arrangement, we will look at how it:
- promotes a circular economy
- maximises the continued use of products and materials over their life cycle
- reduces harm to the environment and human health of products or materials.
If required, we may need to request more information from you.
The minister is the decision maker.
Approval
The minister will decide whether:
- to accredit the voluntary arrangement
- if any further conditions are needed to ensure the arrangement complies with the Act and rules.
Setting conditions on accreditation ensures that the minister’s expectations are clearly documented, and the administrator is aware of their obligations.
Conditions could include:
- specific targets on the outcomes of the arrangement
- requirements regarding environmental, health and safety performance
- reporting, review and performance evaluation requirements and timeframes
- requirements in relation to the arrangement’s governance, organisational and financial matters.
Appendix A of the application guide outlines this process.
If you are successful
We will provide successful applicants with an accreditation pack. The pack will include information to assist you throughout the accreditation period.
Accreditation will be granted for up to 5 years from the day the accreditation takes effect. You also have permission to use the Australian Government product stewardship logo.
You will receive:
- a letter of accreditation from the minister including information on any conditions imposed
- a guide on how to use the accreditation logo.
We publish information about accredited arrangements.
Information you provide
When you apply for accreditation, you may need to give us information about you and your third-party partners.
Make sure they are aware of:
- what you include in your application
- how we will handle that information.
See our privacy and confidentiality notices. You can share these with third parties.
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Privacy notice
We are bound by law, including the Privacy Act 1988 in the handling of personal information (including sensitive information).
Personal information
‘Personal information’ means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. The personal information we collect includes names, addresses, contact details and information for identification purposes such as dates of birth and copies of identifying documents.
Sensitive information
‘Sensitive information’ is a subset of personal information and includes any information or opinion about an individual's racial or ethnic origin, political opinion or association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, sexual preferences or practices, trade or professional associations and memberships, union membership, criminal records, health or genetic information and biometric information or templates.
We will collect sensitive information, including information about criminal records, about persons in management or control positions, persons completing accredited voluntary arrangement applications and the associates of all such persons.
Collection of information
We are collecting personal information for the purposes of determining applications for an accredited voluntary arrangement under the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020 (Act) and related purposes, including:
- to provide services to you, including processing and assessing applications for accredited voluntary arrangements
- to send communications to you, including to provide information and advice and to seek feedback on matters relating to accredited voluntary arrangements
- for our administrative, planning, record-keeping, product and service development, quality control and research, project and grant purposes.
Disclosure of information
We will publish information on our website, as required by the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020.
We will not publish any information if:
- there is a risk that publishing the information might substantially prejudice the commercial interests of a person
- publishing the information is not in the public interest.
We may disclose personal and sensitive information to other Australian Government agencies, persons or organisations where necessary for the purposes of assessing your application, compliance and related purposes.
We are unlikely to disclose your personal information overseas.
Consent
You must have obtained the express, current, specific and informed consent of all other persons whose personal information you have included in this form, to disclose the information to us. By completing and submitting this form you:
- will be taken to have declared to us that you have obtained the consent described in this section from all relevant persons
- consent to the collection and disclosure of all your personal information and sensitive information contained in this form.
Giving false or misleading information is a serious offence.
Consequences of not collecting the personal and sensitive information
If you fail to provide the relevant personal and sensitive information we request in your application, some or all of the following may apply:
- we may not be able to provide you with information about products and services that you may want, or
- your application may not be accepted.
See our Privacy Policy to learn more about accessing or correcting personal information or making a complaint about any breach of the Australian Privacy Principles or the Australian Government Agencies Privacy Code. Alternatively, you may telephone the department on +61 2 6272 3933.
Confidentiality notice
To assess an application for export licences, exemptions and voluntary product stewardship accreditation, we may need to collect a range of information about the financial and operational aspects of the arrangement, and the individuals involved in the arrangement.
Protected information
The information collected on this form may be ‘protected information’, which is information that was disclosed or obtained under or for the purposes of the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020.
We are bound by law, to handle protected information in accordance with our obligations under the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020.
Collection of information
We will collect and store protected information collected on this form in a manner consistent with our obligations under the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020; and where relevant, the Privacy Act 1988 and our Privacy Policy.
Disclosure of information
We may disclose protected information collected for the purposes of assessing your application (including information contained on this form) to:
- suppliers and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships for business, marketing, and related purposes
- peer reviewers and committee members for the purpose of assessing your applications
- our minister, parliamentary secretary and portfolio agencies for the purposes of administering portfolio programs and functions, and/or
- a House or Committee of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.
We may disclose protected information to other Australian government agencies, persons or organisations where necessary for the purposes of assessing your application, compliance purposes and related purposes.
Publication of information
We will publish information on our website, as required by the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020.
We will not publish any information if:
- there is a risk that publishing the information might substantially prejudice the commercial interests of a person
- publishing the information is not in the public interest.
Publication of data
We may disclose de-identified data to our website for reporting purposes and to an Australian Government database. This database will track Australia’s waste and recycling trends and will be made available for public viewing. We will not publish any information if there is a risk that publishing the information might substantially prejudice the commercial interests of a person or publishing the information is not in the public interest.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) authorisation
Some arrangements need to collect levies to set up and operate the arrangement and related education programs, research, and activities.
To collect levies, scheme administrators may need ACCC authorisation if the arrangements breach the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and are likely to result in a public benefit.
Examples:
- an industry agreed levy on supplying products
- an arrangement among competitors to only deal with businesses that are part of the stewardship scheme.
Find out more about:
- the ACCC authorisation process
- product stewardship arrangements authorised by the ACCC, visit ACCC public register.
Guidance documents
- Voluntary Product Stewardship Accreditation Application Guide (PDF 835 KB)
- Voluntary Product Stewardship Accreditation Application Guide (DOCX 1.4 MB)
Contact us
Email: PS.Accredit@dcceew.gov.au
Phone: 1800 77 99 55
Post: Product Stewardship Policy Section, Attention: Product Stewardship Accreditation Team, GPO Box 3090, Canberra ACT 2601.
Cost Recovery
We charge for accrediting product stewardship arrangements. This promotes consistent, transparent, and accountable charging. It also shows our compliance with the Australian Government's Cost Recovery Guidelines.