Opportunities in Applied Environmental Research and Development (1991) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A: Waste Reduction: Research Needs in Applied Social Sciences
Appendix A: Waste Reduction: Research Needs in Applied Social Sciences
Pages 11-96
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Appendix A l Waste Reduction: Research Needs In Applied Social Sciences A Workshop Report
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This workshop focused on specific research needs in measurement of waste reduction, institution and behavioral barriers to waste reduction, and policy incentives for waste reduction, recoding that considerable thought already has been given to technological research needs. It also addresses!
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To carry out an effective policy of waste reduction and pollution prevention, therefore, workshop participants concluded that it is important that federal environmental research programs make applied social science research on environmental management an explicit and integral element of their agendas. Participants asserted that sustained research on these social science issues will be just as important to the achievement of waste reduction and pollution prevention as will research on the more technical aspects of en~ronmenta1 science and tethnolo~.
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Three particular needs were distinguished by the workshop participants: documentation of existing policy incentives regarding waste reduction, including legislative and administrative mandates, and comparative evaluation of their effects; refinement of the economics of waste management to include the implications of waste reduction; and
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Most have relied heavily on traditional lanclfilling practices, the rapidly rising costs of which now make source reduction and redwing far more attractive as alternatives than in the past. Applied
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Trending new waste reduction opportunities in the management of municipal wastewater sludges. The following report provides a more detailed accounting of the waste reduction research needs in applied social sciences identified by workshop p~cipants.
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In 1986, EPA authored a Waste minim'7ation strategy that advocated waste reduction but characterized it loosely to include all waste management approaches, including subsequent treatment, storage, and disposal as well as reduction at the source. This strategy also focused on materials legally defined as hazardous wastes and addressed only teclmicaL rather than regulatory and economic, barriers to reduction (EPA, 1986)
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Examples of the latter included policy and economic incentives for risk reduction, risk communication and perception, environmental management and control systems, and education and training programs. ~ January 1989, EPA issued a draft polity statement adopting pollution prevention through source reduction and "environmentally sound recycling as an agent de commitment and establishing a new Pollution Prevention Office to develop and implement this goal across ad EPA programs (EPA, 1989a)
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At the name time, the EPA proposal acknowledged that There are varying views Hong representatives of ~ndus~y, public interest groups, state and local governments and others over the role of recycling in pollution prevention," and it invited comment on the appropriate role of env~ronmentaBy sound recycling In its pollution prevention program. This variance among viscounts is due in part to semantic confusion (waste reduction, source reduction, toxic use reduction, risk reduction, waste mimm~tion, pollution prevention, eta)
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Ah alas ~= - m= _~ ledges ~ 1~. ~ Is awe dam ~ me realm _ pa an.
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THE NEED FOR APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH In the New of workshop participants, the achievement of waste reduction requires not only research on low-waste tethnolo~es and them relative impacts on the environment, but also research on the human canes of waste and pollution and on the relative effectiveness of public polimes m fended to promote waste reduction and pollution prevention. Effective waste reduction cannot be achieved, for instance, without operational and competent measurement concepts that are clearly linked to environmental protection purposes and to the realities of the production and consumption processes In which they are used.
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. These efforts have been largely limited to economic studies, however, and to supporting immediate regulatory needs as web They do not yet address the broader range of research questions identiiled above, and are not ~ any case an adequate substitute for a coherent and adequately supported program devoted to the social science aspects of waste reduction research Commitment ~ Applied Social Science To implement this research agenda, therefore, and to carry out an effective policy of waste reduction and pollution prevention, the workshop participants believe that it is essential that the federal applied environmental research programs, EPA's in particular, make applied social science research on environmental management an Elliot and integral element of their research programs.
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In auction, much of the literature on waste reduction to date has addressed incremental changes in existing facilities. Many important decisions affecting waste generation, however, take place in decisions about capital investment in new plants and processes.
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chlorofluorocarbons, lead, and Blonde) ; by targeting particular stages of the waste generation process Detraction, manufacturing, commercial use, consumer use, and waste management)
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Such definitions are needed to specify what is to be measured ~ the first place. INSllTtlllONAL AND BEHAVIORAL BARRIERS Background The slogan most widely used to promote waste reduction Is that Pollution prevention pays,.
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Accounting and Financial Analysis The workshop identified a major set of procedural barriers to waste reduction in the area of accounting practices, management information systems, and financial disclosure requirements. First, under traditional accounting practices, waste generation measurements normally are not incorporated explicitly into the formal accoundog/control frarnewor~ many compames have em t rules forbidding the incorporation of S1}Ch information.
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The latter wB1 likely be more receptive to incremental innovations. O - nizational Goals and Effectiveness Even when pollution prevention apparently pays in direct economic terms, the literature of organizational behavior presses that corporations have more than one goal and that their behavior in practice reflects political compromises among the multiple goals of their constituencies: owners, senior managers,
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Different mechanisms are transferred into the firm In different ways and can be elected to yield different types of internal reactions or performance changes: firms respond differently to regulatory requirements, to Changes In production cost factors, to technical assistance from their trade associations, and to other mechanisms that might be used to encourage waste reducdom Technical assistance programs are already a major element In both EPA and state programs for prolong waste reduction, for example, but these efforts would benefit Tom enlist research attention to how and through whom sum assistance can most effectively be delivered Agricultural extension programs provide one model; trade associations, another, umversi~-based programs, government agencies, and consulting eng~neenug firms, still others. What kinds of organizations are the targets of waste reduction incentives?
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Additional questions anse, however, in attempting to promote waste reduction ~ other types of org~n~tions' such as government agendas and nonprofit institutions, or by individuals and households. How, for instance, can one most effectively alter the behavior of pesticide consumers~:ommercial farmers, utilities, homeowners, local parks, golf-course operators, etc~to reduce waste or substitute less-h~rdous practices?
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More sophisticated and empirical work Is needed on precisely how and for whom pollution prevention pays and under what circumstances, god beyond the simple balance-sheet calculations generally used so far to include other considerations important to the firm such as effects on existing operations and employees, suppliers, distributors, and consumer acceptance. Reach collaboration between behavioral scientists and other disciplines might be especially useful here, as well as comparative studies across different firms In the see ~ndustnes, including those that have and have not undertaken program initiatives for systematic waste reduction and comparing tow down and bottom-up strategies.
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refinement of the economics of waste management to include the implications of waste reduction; and (3) implementation and compliance promotion Existing Poligy Incentives Many public policy incentives are already being used by mdMdual states, localities, and nations to promote waste reduction (see, e.g., Bower, 1989; Curlee, 1989a; McHugh, 1989; Schecter, 1989)
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Others find opportunities to increase e~c~engy by reducing the normal gap between the idealized model of rational economic behavior and He reality of 1memmined assumptions, imperfect accounting practices, standard operating procedures, habits, imperfect hlowle~lge of better practices, Lumpiness of the capital costs of corrective measures, and other considerations. Beyond these self-motivated actions, however, public policy incentives play a crucial role in the economics of waste management.
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, for instance, note that some popular forms of policy incentives, sum as those that increase disposal costs, might not simply encourage waste reduction but also exacerbate illegal dumping and black markets ~ wastes; other types of incentives, such as depositrefund systems, might create more effective and straightforward incentives for compliance. At the name time, waste reduction behavior involves more complex considerations then merely compliance wide regulations and fees, and compliance itself involves more complex considerations than mere calculation of the ~costs.
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Research Needs on Policy Incentives Specific research topics suggested by workshop participants include the following 1. What e~nsdug government policies tend to encourage and to discourage waste reduction behavior?
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Most have relied heavily on traditional Filling practices, the rapidly riding costs of which now make source reduction and recycling far more attractive as alternatives than In the past (Melos~, 1981~. Applied research Is urgently needed, therefore, on policy and technological options for waste reduction in counties and municipal governments (Curiee, 1989a,b; EPA' l989c; Prete et aL, 1988; Sherry, 198Sa,b)
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A growing body of anecdotes exists concerning policies and programs adopted by particular local governments, in the United States and elsewhere, to promote source reduction and recycling. Emplace researc h is needed to document and compare the effects of these initiatives: how effective are they in reducing wastes, what do they cost, what other implications do they involve, and how gener~'z~ble are they to larger-scale or more general use?
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CurIee, TO. 1989a Source Reduction and Recycling as Municipal Solid Waste Management Options: An Overview of Government Actions.
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1989. Hazardous waste management: A West
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1986. Serious Reduction of Hazardous Waste: For Pollution Prevention and Industrial E0ic~en~y.
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Wow K 1988. Source reduction and the waste management hierarchy.
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Osborn, Wayne State Uni:vers~ty, Detroit Michael Overcash, North Carolina State University, Raleigh Roger Schecter, North Carolina Department of Natural Resources & Commlln'~ Development, Raleigh Rebecca Todd, New York University, New York Katy Wolf, Source Reduction Research Partnership, Los Angeles Environmental Protection Agencv David Berg, 1 mC Car] Gerber, ORD Geradd Kotas, OPPE Fred lindsey, ORD Ron McHugh, Regulatory Innovations Staff 43
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44 EN~OlIMENTAL RESEARCH & DEVELOPAtENT Workshop Ages Committee on Opportunism ~ Applied Ea~onmental Research and D - elopment Research Needs For Waste Reductions Annapolis, Maryland May 8 & 9, 1989 Monday.
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WASTE REDUCI7ON 45 Tuesday.
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policy incentives for waste redaction All these clom~inS are important, transcend partied industrial processes, are unlikely to be addressed adequately by the private sector alone, and may therefore be strong candidates for research attention by EPA and other agencies. To address them, mvited participants include not only exerts on waste reduction per se.
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policy and economic incentives for risk reduction, risk communication and perception, environmental management and control systems, and education and training programs. Most recently, ~ January 1989 EPA issued a formal policy statement adopting pollution prevention through source reduction as an agengy-w~de policy goal Replacing the narrower focus on 'waste mm7m~tion for legally defined 'hazardous Fastest)
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A 19~ report was explicitly directed to institutional factors in reducing waste generation, but it was limited to hazardous wastes, and its recommendations concerning nontechnical factors focussed mainly on implementation and educational programs; its research recommendations were limited to technological methodologies (NRC, 1985)
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papers by Hollod, Todd, Ashford) The slogan most widely used to promote waste reduction has been that "pollution prevention pays," not just In societal terms but in the coin of direct self-interest to the waste generator; and a growing list of anecdotes has been adduced to support this claim (e.g.
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of the capital costs of corrective measures, etc. Beyond that point, however, pollution prevention pays only because some cost factors have Aged; and many of these factors are heavily influenced -- sometimes deliberately, but often inadvertently or even perversely -by public policy measures.
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1988. Source Reduction and Repycling as Municipal Solid Waste Management
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Paper presented at the Massachusetts 4~ Annual Waste Source Reduction Conference, Boston, October 21-Z, 1987. Staves, R.N.
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* Paper prepared for National Academy of Science's Committee on Opportunities in Applied Environmental Research and Development Workshop, May ~9, 1989, Annapolis, MD 55
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, BODS, US, Food wastes, yard wastes, metals, wood, UCC, UN, UMOP, glass, plastic, AIm~num cans, venous solid wastes pectin to manufacturing process/product combinations, e.g. carpet trimmings, cuttings Tom shooting In manufacture of mobile homes, gaseous residuals from heating/air-conditioning/process steam/electricity generation, water treatment sludge, wastewater treatment sludge, scrubber sludge Commercial: food wastes, yard wastes, glass, plastic, Al cans, UCC, UMOP, UN, bully goods, gaseous residuals from headng/air conditioning, liquid residuals such as BODs, TSS institutional same as commercial plus those Deculiar to activ~ties~ em..
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58 r ll ll ~ I 1 ~ t I rem I ~ , O .;~ act xea , .
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(rheoretic~ly -- -and only theoretically~weights according to relative to~nciq of discharges of matenals to different environmental media could be assigned to different materials and energy waste streams.) The assumption is made In the following that the primary focus of Waste reduction.
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* lacluding acrubber sIudge, bottom ash, fly ash, primary and secondary wastewater treatment sludge, intake water treatment aludge P · product(~)
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Four aspects of product specifications merit emphasis. One, the more stringent and exa~ng die product specifications, generally the greater the waste generation per unit of product.
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and Bower, B.T" 1979, Environmental quality and residuals management, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Table 2, pp.
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Disposable items have become the norm in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, school cafeterias, and fast food emporia (Note: To point out the fact that this shift increases residuals generation Is not to deny the benefits of use of sum items, at least In the first three of the above activities.) Not only have product specifications become more stringent, but at least some types of products have become more complex This ~n~eas~g complexity relates particularly to automobiles and appliances.
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Generation of residuals In extraction, processing, manufacturing service activities ~ a function of the nature/q''antity of inputs, technology of production, and product mix/product specifications. Some examples are given in Table 3; others can be cited.
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These Include prices of energy, both electrical energy and fuel; wastewater disposal; solid wastes disposal; feedstocks/chemicals; mtake water. The sharply ~ reased energy costs In 1973 74 mduced responses by segments of the chemical industry, whim denuded reduction In product mixes and lowered product specifications (see Rabire and Anton, 1974, and A non., 19743.
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Change product mix-reduce number of Hades or sues of product, i.e., chemicals, linerl~oard, paperboard, canned peaches prohibit nonreturnable containers, b. Change product specifications-reduce brightness of consumer paper products, such as towels I AS instead of ABS; short-lived, specific pesticides instead of long-lived, general pesticides; high octane to low octane gas 5.
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'|Surface treating| Drying | Jumbo rolls [43 Paper products FIGURE 5 Flow Diagram of Pulp and Paper Production 1 I Other pulps including repulped waste paper Note: Calcium bisulfate pulping similar except that there is no cooking liquor recovery, spent liquor from washing being discharged. Chemical addition (1)
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The liability potent, is., liability for damages resulting Tom inadequately handing of solid wastes, particularly hazardous wastes (Cheremis~noff, 19&9) , 'S affective at least In the pr~vata sector.
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Technical information development and transfer can bed with jointly fm~nced research projects on methods to reduce wastes generation, via changes-~n raw materials, production processes, product spec~hcat~ons, or all three. State PPP prowar, as ~ North Carolina, are mechanisms to provide information.
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71 ~u 2 ~ A c to c (:3 ~`-` _q ~ ~1 ~ I ~ :~ t .1 ~ i\ .o C)
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(3) The continuing trend for more product proliferation and higher product specifications, taller office building requ~nug ever more sophisticated stool, and more energy mtens~v~e activities such as dov~nhiR skiing makes the achievement of waste reduction in American socked difficult.
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74 ~ t 1 ~ 'C rid _ _ .
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1-16. Bri~ger, R.P., 1988, Pollution prevention plus, Pollution Engineering, 20, 10, pp.
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The proposals which will be elaborated on below will be to develop means to: (1) revise our traditional production accounting methods which capture and apply to products those costs which occur in production, but which cease when the finished product leaves the shop floor, disassociating spillovers and contingent costs from the products which produced them; (2)
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7ling counter-examples Ernst. However, the vast proportion of information which Is available to investors, creditors, and others is mandated by two regulatory bodies, the F~n~nmal Acco~dug Standards Board BUSBY, the private rule-ma~ng org~i=don which provides guidelines for the public accounting profession, and the Securities Exchange Comma on (SEC)
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Another aspect of cost capture which we should consider at this point is the account Contingency. Under Statement of Financial Accounting Standard ~AS)
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Possibilities include but are not restncted to: (1) qualitative disclosure of waste matenals and other hazardous wastes produced in manufacturing processes as a minimum disclosure; (2)
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Firms for which the future is Fought to be very uncertain are considered speadat~ve In nature and the market Is ruthless In its assessment. Such firms may effectively be barred from the capital markets by prohibitive capital costs.
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The good news is that those firms which have begun early to get their environmental houses in order win be ~ a first rate position relative to the competition by virnle of their careful and foresighted stewardship. Second, some industries, regardless of then efforts to avoid and prevent waste production, are inherently Dirtier than others A chemical company is not a David's Cookies whose major hazardous waste Is a bad pecan or two!
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-- ~Accoundng for Cont~genc~es,~ Financial Accounting Standards (FAS! #5, (Stamford,CI:1975)
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Possibilities include but are not restricted to: (1) qualitative disclosure of waste materials and other h~dous wastes produced ~ manufacturing processes as a minimlim disclosure; (23 a contingency rule type of disclosure where aggregate minimum estimates are made across the specUrum of products produced by a firm; (3)
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New phrases have been coined to better represent our enlightened understanding. Indeed, source reduction is no longer the accepted phrase; rather, we now speak of pollution prevention to symbolize the insight that source reduction applies not only to waste, but Is multimedia in nature.
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There Is and win be a continuing debate on tl~e hierarchy and on what constitutes source reduction, waste reduction, waste minimization or pollution prevention There may never be agreement on the best definition and it probably does not matter. As I show below, whatever term Is used, there Is presently no good method for measunag it or indeed, for deciding what it is.
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classifies METH as a possible carcinogen, EPA defines it as a probable human carcinogen. EPA and ~alifonua are considenog regulating it as a tome air content, the Consumer Product Safety Comm~on has a labeling requirement when it Is used In certain products, it is regulated under Proposition 65 In California, and spent METH is considered a hazardous waste under RCRA In the first plant, a chemical production plant, METH is produced.
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From page 88... ...
They believe it would help tracic trends ~ hazardous substances use if-throughput information could be collected In addition to the rattle m release data. They claim that collecting two additional pieces of data, the first and last lines of Table 1, the amount of the substance brought on site and the amount produced or sent off site In the product, would allow a throughput analysis that could be used to measure progress In source reduction.
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From page 89... ...
If the local Station district does not require treatment before release to the sewer, then metals are being placed In the sewer where they would not make their way if MEI'H were still berg used Has source reduction been accomplished and if so, how much? If the Station &tnct does require the water to be treated, the light fixture manufacturer might have to ~nstalI an ion exchange process to treat the metals.
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is equivalent to adopting source reduction measures. Again, we can do this in several ways.
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Understanding industrial processes, their release characteristics and the implications of the feasible source reduction options is essential. REGUI^TION OF SOURCE REDUCTION There Is a growing movement that believes ~ndus~y has been slow to embrace source reduction This group believes that only through regulation wiB there be widespread awareness and adoption of source reduction measures.
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From page 92... ...
If not, as Is generally the case In California, the cost would be much hider Good et at 1982~. Furthermore, under most definitions of source reduction, carbon adsorption, a treatment technology, is not included and it might not be allowed under the proposM regulation.
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Another related reason for imposing a regulation requ~nug source reduction is that such a regulation may be able to reduce, and mdeed eliminate, the hazardous substances that we have not been able to eliminate through other regulatory statutes. We devote significant resources to regulating ha~dous substances once they have entered commerce through a variety of statutes.
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From page 94... ...
Our top phony now should be to provide technics stance to small and medium sized plants on an industr,~-by-~ndus~y, plant-by-plant basis. Although a component of the assistance wood obviously be source reduction, the major effort would focus on better hazardous substances management.
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From page 95... ...
The light fixture manufacturer in Table 1 In the text purchases ~5,000 pounds of METH annually. The losses are 18,750 pounds of atmosphenc-em~ ons and 6,250 pounds of spent waste solvent.
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Waste Reduction Progress," March 19~. Wolf, Kate, Source Reduction and the Waste Mimm}zation Hierarchy,.
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