21st Century Policy Project

Top 10 Trends and Issues

The following listing summarizes the trends and issues identified during an "issues summit" conducted by the CIWMB in January 1999.

Trends

Increasing size, age, and cultural diversity of the California population

• Changes make-up of waste stream (e.g., more organic waste, less green waste, more waste associated with elderly healthcare), impacting existing solid waste programs.
• More waste generated, impacting existing solid waste programs.

Increased globalization of economy and impacts on materials flows and prices

• Increasing international controls by trade agreements making it difficult for states to reach waste diversion goals.
• Countries like Germany have packaging requirements for all products. Is it appropriate in this new global marketplace to create standards?

Loss of crop and grazing land

• Reduces the amount of organic waste generated.
• Increases the amount of inorganic waste generated.

Climate Change

• Changes make-up of waste stream (e.g., more or less green waste).
• Changes management at landfills (e.g., increasing leachate production, flooding washing away portion of landfill).

Increasing concern about the threat of the environment, safety and transportation (fuel consumption, air pollution, global warming, ozone depletion, transportation costs, etc.) caused by various aspects of waste management

• Increasing risk-based environmental decision making.
• Increasing interest in life-cycle efficiency in e.g. transportation.

Increased consolidation, mergers and cost control will cause lower cost and more products to be produced (i.e. waste management not a priority)

• Jeopardizes waste reduction and recycling programs.
• Decreases markets for recyclables.

Change in technology and consumer habits will change the composition of the waste stream (such as with home computers)

• Creates new solid waste streams to manage/reduce.
• Changes in the range of materials in products affect recycling.

Increase in consolidation in the waste management industry, which threatens competition and pricing, increases waste and permits fewer to have more influence on public policy

• Moves waste management decisions to Wall Street.
• Decreasing number of landfills, increasing distance to transport waste.

Increase in number and quality of material recovery and sorting facilities, processing and new recycling technologies

• Improves quality of recyclables, making more attractive to manufacturers.
• More manufactures goods designed for recycling.

Increasing disconnect between the generator and their waste - what happens after the garbage is picked up?

• Impacts generator support for waste reduction and recycling activities.
• Diminishes environmental concern by public.
• Buy recycled message hard to deliver.

Issues

Issue: AB 939 in the New Millennium
AB 939 established the current organization, structure, and mission of CIWMB in 1989. The enactment of AB 939 resulted from an unprecedented political consensus. Driving factors for that consensus included a national crisis in landfill capacity and broad acceptance of the hierarchy (reduce, reuse, recycle, environmentally sound landfilling and transformation) as the desired approach to solid waste management. Since that time landfill capacity has increased. Regional capacity problems exist, but capacity is no longer considered the statewide crisis it once was. Some local decision makers have generated an on-going cost vs. benefit debate relating to the existing hierarchy, as new approaches come to the forefront. AB 939 has achieved significant progress in waste diversion, program implementation, solid waste planning, and protection of public health and safety and the environment from the operation of landfills and solid waste facilities. However, it is also evident that the remaining effort needed to meet and maintain the year 2000 goals of AB 939 could be monumental for some jurisdictions. What new ideas and approaches are necessary to build upon the progress of AB 939?

Issue: Cross-Media/Cross-Government
Federal, state, and local environmental agencies historically are organized on the basis of single environmental media or arbitrary groupings of waste types (e.g., air, water, toxics, solid waste, pesticides). These environmental agencies typically do not assess the tradeoffs in costs and benefits across different media and, as a result, cannot adequately consider innovative alternatives and long-term benefits. One example is the tradeoffs in air quality benefits and groundwater contamination costs associated with the gasoline additive MTBE. Another example is the tradeoffs associated with composting, such as air quality concerns versus landfill capacity savings from diversion and reduced nitrate leaching from agricultural applications of compost.

Issue: Education and Public Awareness
From government to industry, and from students to the general public, education tools have been developed and implemented to effect behavioral changes related to waste management. Many of these stakeholders have utilized education strategies, but have not achieved the desired results-- to capture the interest of Californians and increase their understanding and knowledge of integrated waste management issues. These efforts are not always coordinated or complementary, and tools to measure their effectiveness are limited. In addition, in order for any public education message to be taken seriously and be effective, it must be based on good data and sound science.

Issue: Consolidation of Industry
The consolidation of smaller companies to form larger ones is a reality in virtually all business sectors, driven by economics and the administrative savings that can result. The impacts of consolidation on all aspects of solid waste generation and management - from waste generation, to disposal and recovery and the development of markets for recovered materials - are multiple and varied. Consolidation within manufacturing and retail industries may also have an impact on current waste management practices in California.

Issue: Integration of Management of Waste System
It is important to identify the barriers and disadvantages associated with integrating the independent elements of waste/materials management into a comprehensive system. Each element of collection, which includes trash, recyclables, green waste and source separated materials, is a separate segment which could include four to six activities. Elements of processing could include: source separated materials cleaned up for delivery to an end user facility; commingled sorting; shredding and mixing of green waste for composting or alternative daily cover; "dirty" material recovery facilities that sort through most of the delivered wastestream; and finally, disposal of residual wastes in a landfill or at a transformation facility.

In addition to the operational components of waste management elements locally, the public education, waste prevention and source reduction components must be considered.

Integrating waste management saves landfill space, conserves natural resources and preserves the integrity of the regional system. There are, however, pitfalls associated with how integration might be approached. For instance, if local decision makers evaluate each component as a separate piece of an integrated system and compare the current value and cost of that particular element against a low dump fee, it would be extremely difficult to persuade people that an integrated approach today will benefit them in the long run.

Another reality an integrated system faces up to is local landfill capacity, which for many jurisdictions will be fully absorbed at some point. The cost to transfer and dispose of waste outside the region will most likely shock residents and decision-makers. Will integration of the system now bring greater stability in the future and relieve the economic distress of escalating disposal costs?

Issue: Market Development
As current market development efforts are in progress to support the mandate of AB 939 to achieve 50 percent diversion of the waste stream by the year 2000, our 21s'Century Project challenges us to redesign our market development approach. The recent increase in recycled-content products in the marketplace requires our new focus in promoting market forces to encourage proper uses of recovered materials and virgin feedstock; to manufacture new consumer products; and, to clear the market of surplus recovered materials. The proposed scope of our collective efforts is to reshape our design for a more effective market development policy, strategy, and program to support sustainability for the next decade and beyond.

Issue: New Technology
Future waste management practices, the provision of goods and services that do or do not generate waste, and the incorporation of recycled materials in-to goods and services will, to a great extent, determine the development and deployment of new technologies. The State can choose to have a role and to define its role (active, supporting, financial, etc.) in such technology development.

Issue: The Role of Stakeholders in Solid Waste/Materials Management
Different stakeholders have different roles in creating an integrated cradle-to-cradle solid waste/materials management system that recognizes and promotes mutual best outcomes. Different stakeholders focus on or impact parts of the waste system, including government, the solid waste industry, businesses, and the general public. As the system evolves, new stakeholders are emerging. Existing stakeholders and emerging ones will need to establish roles that look at the entire system.

Issue: Sustainability
What does or should current thinking about "sustainable development" mean for solid waste management? Sustainability means "creating economic, ecological and social prosperity while ensuring that future generations have the same opportunity to create their own prosperity." Achieving this goal depends on society fundamentally changing the way it views waste, by moving from a disposal-driven "cradle-to-grave" system with significant negative impacts toward a more benign "cradle-to-cradle stewardship" system.