The county´s board of supervisors has adopted a resolution supporting the concept of product stewardship, also known as extended producer responsibility.

The move comes as the county said it has seen a 1,600% increase in its costs to manage household hazardous wastes during the last nine years.

"If we only concern ourselves with the disposal of a product, we miss significant opportunities to reduce the overall cost to manage these products by designing them more efficiently in the first place," said Mark Miller, director of the county Department of Sanitation. "All stakeholders in the product chain need to share in the responsibility, whether it´s public education, acting as a collection venue, or the consumers returning the product for recycling at convenient collection locations."

"Product stewardship calls for producers to share in the responsibility for managing their products and packaging by incentivizing them to design more durable, less toxic and repairable products," the county said.

Nevada County and 80 other California cities and counties support "producer responsibility," according to the California Product Stewardship Council.

Contact Waste & Recycling News senior reporter Jim Johnson at 937-964-1289 or jpjohnson@crain.com