Contaminants of Emerging Concern Product Stewardship Initiative
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Purpose

The Contaminants of Emerging Concern Product Stewardship Initiative is a two-year cooperative effort to implement a comprehensive pharmaceutical and personal care products waste collection, awareness and education, and product stewardship program to prevent toxic discharges to the Great Lakes and improve water quality and wildlife and fish habitat. This initiative will expand the Wisconsin pharmaceutical waste mail back program throughout the state’s Great Lakes basin, support existing pharmaceutical waste working groups, initiate additional working groups in other Great Lakes states, and sponsor both local government and industry product stewardship dialogs that will lead to a model public policy program framework.

Objective

Goal 1: To create a long term and sustainable infrastructure to prevent the release of PPCPs containing toxic substances to the Great Lakes basin ecosystem. Goal 2: To reduce the impacts of PPCPs on aquatic life in order to allow for the consumption of Great Lakes fish by improving the health and sustainability of Great Lakes ecosystems. Goal 3: To protect the health and integrity of wildlife populations and habitat which are impacted by the adverse chemical and biological effects associated with the presence of toxic substances in the Great Lake Basin.

Outcome

Preventing and reducing the release of persistent toxic substances to the Great Lakes basin while reducing the level of toxics enabling the lifting of restrictions on fish consumption will be the primary outcome of this project. By reducing releases of pharmaceutical chemicals, the health and integrity of the wildlife populations and habitats will be protected from adverse chemical and biological effects. Furthermore, another outcome of this effort will be contaminant reduction to the region’s drinking water supply that will help address the inability of drinking and waste water treatment plants to treat PPCPs. An additional outcome of this project will be a significant change in consumer and business disposal practices regarding PPCPs. There will also be an increased awareness by the public of the real costs in health care expenditures and the environmental cost of flushing old medicine. Finally, in addition to these environmental outcomes, the long term financing and industry participation in product stewardship will lead to a sustainable product management outcome based upon the additional knowledge gained by the expansion of the mail back program and other state initiatives. • Over 1.22 million doses and 9,000 pounds of unwanted medicines will be collected from over 19,000 households, • 95% of participating consumers will no longer dispose of old medicines via flushing or trash disposal, • The existing Wisconsin pharmaceutical waste working group will be expanded and up to four additional state based pharmaceutical working groups will be formed, • Five product stewardship dialogs and local government forums will be held, and • State-specific frameworks for model PPCPs product stewardship programs will be developed and implemented throughout the Great Lakes region.

Related Reports

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Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
Toxics and Areas of Concern
GLRI_00E00446-0
2010
Active
 
Reports and Documents
Grant Progress Report
Annual grant progress report to EPA
Contaminants of Emerging Concern Product Stewardship Initiative, GLRI proposal, Brachman
 
Activities & Recommendations
Information and Education
The Contaminants of Emerging Concern Product Stewardship Initiative is a two-year cooperative effort to implement a comprehensive pharmaceutical and personal care products waste collection, awareness and education, and product stewardship program to prevent toxic discharges to the Great Lakes and improve water quality and wildlife and fish habitat. This initiative will expand the Wisconsin pharmaceutical waste mail back program throughout the state’s Great Lakes basin, support existing pharmaceutical waste working groups, initiate additional working groups in other Great Lakes states, and sponsor both local government and industry product stewardship dialogs that will lead to a model public policy program framework.
 
Watershed
Milwaukee River South
 
Waters
Kinnickinnic River
Monitoring Data