Service economy

Redefining all reference to commodity or product relations as part of the service sector is the goal of those who use the term service economy.

In this service-centric view of the economy, there is literally "no such thing as a product." Everything purchased has services necessarily assumed within it.

This is seen, especially in green economics and more specific theories within it such as Natural Capitalism, as having these benefits:

• Much easier integration with accounting for nature's services
• Much easier integration with state services under globalization, e.g. meat inspection is a service that is assumed within a product price, but which can vary quite drastically with jurisdiction, with some serious effects.
• Association of goods movements in commodity markets with negative commodity (representing emissions or other pollution, biodiversity loss, biosecurity risk) public bads so that no commodity can be traded without assuming responsibility for damage done by its extraction, processing, shipping, trading and sale - its comprehensive outcome
• Easier integration with urban ecology and industrial ecology modelling
• Making it easier to relate to the Experience Economy of actual quality of life decisions made by human beings based on assumptions about service, and integrating economics better with marketing theory about brand value e.g. products are purchased for their assumed reliability in some known process. This assumes that the user's experience with the brand (implying a service they expect) is far more important than its technical characteristics

Full cost accounting and most accounting reform and monetary reform measures are usually thought to be impossible to achieve without a good model of the service economy.

Product stewardship or product take-back are words for a specific requirement or measure in which the service of waste disposal is paid for at time of purchase. It is often applied to paint, tires, and other goods that become toxic waste if not disposed of properly. It is most familiar as the deposit bottle - where one pays for the loan of the bottle at the same time as one purchases what is inside it. Legal requirements vary: the bottle itself may be considered the property of the purchaser of the contents, or, the purchaser may have some obligation to return the bottle to some depot so it can be recycled or re-used.

The [United States] [Environmental Protection Agency] advocates product stewardship to "reduce the life-cycle environmental effects of products." The ideal of product stewardship, as administered by the EPA in [2004], "taps the shared ingenuity and responsibility of businesses, consumers, governments, and others," the EPA states at a Web site.

Outside resources:

EPA Product Stewardship Web site "highlights the latest developments in product stewardship, both in the United States and abroad."