This thesis focuses on the link between product stewardship, specifically end of life product recovery, and collaboration in business relationships. The European Union legislature has originated new regulations that affect product manufacturers and requires that companies establish end of life product recovery processes. New responsibilities for product manufacturers in turn lead to new business relationships that have to be managed. Previous research suggests that collaborative relationships are important for the success of end of life product recovery, and yet fail to describe how. Hence this research asks how collaborative relationships for end of life product recovery can lead to capabilities and, in turn, benefits for firms and society. Based on empirical case analysis of six, recently established, collaborative relationships across three industries, the research explains the role of collaborative relationships in accessing and developing capabilities for end of life product recovery. The identified capabilities are linked to organisational and ecological benefits. The analysis utilises a conceptual framework and a number of theoretical lenses through which to explain the process of collaboration. The research contributes to theory by using a conceptual framework that is developed into a conceptual model to predict the outcome of collaborative relationships for end of life product recovery. The contributions specifically target two identified research gaps relating to 1) the role of collaborative relationships in accessing and developing capabilities for end of life product recovery and 2) how the resulting capabilities lead to specific benefits. The work concludes that collaboration leads to both access and development of capabilities, with access more prominent in the relationships examined. While capabilities can lead to organisational benefits, such as reduced inventory, and ecological benefits, such as reduced landfill, this is not always the case. Furthermore, previous theoretical conceptions of product stewardship capabilities may be at odds with the competitiveness imperative.