This initiative applies the conceptual framework of Life Cycle Stewardship and Extended Product Responsibility to pesticide products by means of encouraging full stakeholder involvement in developing a stewardship strategy and implementation plan for the United States to ensure stable and sustainable means for disposing pesticide containers and obsolete products.

Regulatory mandates have ensured that training and stewardship protocols are in place for most stages of the pesticide life cycle. However, this is not the case at the end of a pesticide's life cycle (i.e., at the point of disposal for obsolete pesticides and overstocks and their containers). Stewardship at this stage of the pesticide life cycle has been at the pleasure of the pesticides industry and related trade groups (such as the Agricultural Container Recycling Council), and of state and local Clean Sweep programs for collection of hazardous materials. The early 1990s saw the proliferation of such efforts and programs, but, with budget shortfalls of the past several years, many of these voluntary and local programs have retrenched. Pesticide end users in many areas of the United States have thus been left with accumulations of hazardous products and containers. Without proper disposal, materials often get stored in places where they could contaminate water and soil, or be consumed by livestock, wildlife, or children. Containers, some containing residual products, are sometimes burned in open fires on the farm. This exposes farm families and other rural residents, as well as the plants near the base of the human food chain, to toxic emissions.

Working as a member of The Pesticide Stewardship Alliance (TPSA) Pesticide Life Cycle Stewardship (PLCS) Focus Group, I have become increasingly involved in promoting a dialog with a diverse array of pesticide stakeholders - manufactures, distributors, regulators, end-users, and educators - to envision and then implement a sustainable infrastructure for end-of-life-cycle pesticide stewardship. I represented TPSA at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program Conference in July 2005. There I introduced this initiative at an early stage of its development to a forum where pesticide stewardship has focused almost entirely on integrated pest management as an approach to selecting least toxic products and reducing use.

In late 2005 the TPSA focus group drafted a prospectus outlining the problem and the PLCS initiative. In 2006 this conversation will be broadened to involve key pesticide industry stakeholders including the TPSA membership, American Association of Pesticide Control Officials, CropLife America, the Agricultural Container Recycling Council, American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators, the North America Hazardous Waste Association, the EPA and others. This initiative bridges several of my program areas including recycling agricultural plastics, pesticide risk reduction, and biosecurity (a program theme 2003-2004). PLCS is a biosecurity issue because pesticide overstocks and obsolete products are hazardous materials that should be removed from insecure locations in communities. Additionally, the impact of PLCS has thus far been in using a new vocabulary and set of ideas to talk about pesticide stewardship and risk reduction.

• Private/Other (e.g., unrestricted funds, commodity groups, foundations, companies)
• The Pesticide Stewardship Alliance