Transcript Task 6: Waste Prevention & Environmental Concerns

Leading Waste Prevention
Efforts in the U.S. and Abroad
Prepared by:
James Goldstein
Tellus Institute
Boston, MA
Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation
Montpelier, VT
April 12, 2007
What is Waste Prevention
and What is Not?
The Vermont Solid Waste Management Plan defines waste
prevention as “the design, manufacture, purchase, or use
of materials (such as products or packaging) to reduce the
amount and toxicity of waste generated.”
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What it is:
Product, building, packaging design; upstream of the user; preconsumer, in-process waste; repair; direct reuse; smart purchasing
decisions
What it isn’t:
Recycling; off-site composting; beneficial use of materials (e.g.,
landfill cover, tire chips in septic systems); biodegradable; fuel for
waste-to-energy plants (tires or wood chips)
What it may be:
Materials exchange; on-site composting
Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Waste Prevention vs. Recycling
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Elimination of excess packaging versus
collection and recycling of cardboard
Electronic communications versus
recycling paper
Standardized and/or off-site building
practices to minimize waste versus C&D
recycling/reuse
Purchasing products with longer
lifetimes versus recycling used products
Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Four Stages of Material Flows
Raw
Materials
Production
Distribution
Retail
Consumption
Waste prevention opportunities at all stages
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Waste Prevention Methods/Tools
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How We Make Things: Productivity Improvements
- P2, lean manufacturing, industrial ecology, green permits, and technological advances:
weighting, miniaturization and dematerialization, micro- and nano-technology
light-
How We Do Business: Alternative Models
- Design for Environment (DfE) programs
- Supply chain management
- Leasing and “servicizing”
Public Awareness and Action
- Consumer demand for more environmentally friendly products
- Emerging sustainable lifestyle movement, including the simplicity movement
- Community-Based Social Marketing
Economic Incentives
- Packaging tax, pre-disposal fees, point-of-sale levies
- Pay-As-You-Throw for municipal (residential) sector
- Resource Management contracting for business sector
Regulatory Requirements
- Product Stewardship / Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
- Waste bans
Government Leadership by Example
- Environmentally Preferred Procurement/Purchasing (EPP)
- Internal practices such as duplex copying, equipment reuse, green building
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Waste Prevention Methods for Each
Stage of Material Flows
Productivity
Improvements
Alternative
Business
Models
Public
Awareness
and Action
Economic
Incentives
Regulatory
Requirements
Government
Leadership
Production
Distribution
Retail
Consumption
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Waste Prevention Best Practices
Production
 Resource Productivity Improvements
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Pollution prevention (P2)
Lean manufacturing
Green permitting
Industrial ecology
Technological advances: light-weighting, miniaturization and
dematerialization, micro- and nano-technology
Alternative Business Models
slide 7
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Promoting Design for Environment (DfE)
Supply chain management
Product stewardship
Leasing and “servicizing”
Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Waste Prevention Best Practices
Distribution
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Packaging tax, pre-disposal fees,
point-of-sale levies
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Minimize packaging
Reusable packaging/shipping containers
Packaging ordinances
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
Supply chain management
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Waste Prevention Best Practices
Retail
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Minimize packaging
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EPP and supply chain management
Leasing and “servicizing”
Product stewardship/
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
Resource Management contracting
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Waste Prevention Best Practices
Consumption
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Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP)
Public Awareness and Action
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Consumer education regarding waste prevention
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Community-Based Social Marketing
Emerging sustainable lifestyle movement, including the simplicity
movement
Pay-As-You-Throw for municipal
(residential) sector
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Leading Waste Prevention Programs:
United States, Europe and Canada
WA
OR
VT
NY
MA
CA
British
Columbia
Europe
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Vermont Manufacturing
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Census Bureau and Commerce Department
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Production:
Washington’s “Beyond Waste” Program
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Adopts Materials Flow Framework
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Identifies significant flows in terms of volume and/or toxicity
Minimize flows through efficient use of resources, recovering material
for high-value reuse, or incorporating “cradle-to-cradle” design
Green Building Action Plan - Aims include:
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Mainstream green building practices in Washington
Maximize reuse and recycling of C&D materials
Transform the way buildings and materials are designed
Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Production:
Vermont Builds Greener
Project of VT Building for Social Responsibility & VT Energy
Investment Corp.
- Certifies residential buildings constructed to sustainability criteria
- Points achieved through sustainability strategies and house size
- Building products made from salvaged, recycled, or waste-stream content
materials (rehab. used house rather than build new; used doors, cabinets and
countertops; salvaged wood)
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“Reduce, Re-Use and Recycle” section includes points for:
 Optimize material use through use of standard design (ceiling height, wall length)
 Optimal Value Engineering (OVE) framing
 Providing space for occupant recycling and/or composting
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Production:
British Columbia Product Stewardship
British Columbia Product Stewardship Programs
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Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), places onus for end-oflife product management on producers and consumers rather than
general taxpayers
- Shifts responsibility (physically and/or economically, fully or partially) upstream
to the producer
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Provides incentives to producers to consider environmental impacts in the design
of products
To support the development of new programs, Oct. 2004
Recycling Regulation includes core EPR requirements for beverage
containers with plans to transform electronics (e-waste), tire and
battery recycling programs into EPR programs
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Production: EU’s Restrictions on
Hazardous Substances Directive
EU’s Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive
Requires manufacturers to replace mercury, lead, hexavalent chromium, and
other heavy metals in a variety of products
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Applies to:
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Large household appliances
Small household appliances
Computing & communications equipment
Consumer electronics
Others
Other similar regulations: China, Japan
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Distribution/Retail: California’s
Packaging Redesign Program
CIWMB’s Packaging Redesign Program
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California Shipping and Distribution Partnership - voluntary effort to
encourage businesses to adopt more efficient packaging and
distribution systems that save money while preventing waste
Promotes designing refillable or reusable packages, and producing
recyclable packages and packages made of recyclable material
Focuses on preventing or reusing (or recycling) five key materials:
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Composites
Paper
Plastic
Steel/Metal
Wood
Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Distribution/Retail: Germany Packaging
Ordinance and Green Dot Trademark
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German Packaging Ordinance
- Manufacturers and distributors must take back used, empty sales
packaging from consumers free of charge
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Does not apply to companies in the dual system whereby packaging
is regularly collected from private households
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License fees (for Green Dot Trademark) are calculated on the basis of
the weight and type of materials used
Green Dot Trademark
- Companies must contract in the dual system
(Duales System Deutschland or DSD)
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Register their packaging/articles
Send DSD regular statements of actual quantities sold
Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Distribution/Retail: Netherlands
Extended Producer Responsibility
Netherlands Packaging Covenant
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Voluntary approach to packaging reduction; aims to decouple GDP
growth and packaging; agreement to cap packaging tons disposed
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Achieved 6-15% per year reductions in packaging waste in the early
years; declined to 1-2% annual reductions in later years (higher
reductions than in Germany)
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2006 Packaging, Paper and Board Management Decree: requires
producers to pay for separate collection of household packaging waste
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Consumption:
Washington Beyond Waste
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Program takes on “the substantial task of redefining American
consumerism and culture;” views waste as inefficient resource use
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Key elements include:
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Make green building practices mainstream
Establish organics recovery cycle
Reduce mercury and PBDE in product manufacturing
Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Consumption:
Vermont Builds Greener
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Strong emphasis on house
size; significant points for
smaller houses and
penalties for larger homes
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Consumption:
Seattle and King County, WA
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Education and Technical Assistance
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EcoConsumer (Gateway Program)
Home composting
“Use it again, Seattle!”
Waste prevention resources
Product stewardship
Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Consumption: United Kingdom
National Resource and Waste Forum
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Established the UK Framework for Waste Prevention to
address the link between increased wealth and waste
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Started by addressing demand side through a local action
toolkit
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Home and community composting of yard, food and other organic waste potentially 25-30% of household waste
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Smart shopping - how the consumer can reduce packaging waste and single
use products
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Paper waste - how householders and community groups can stop unwanted
mailings
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Product life - how the community can encourage repair and reuse of products
including resale/redistribution
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Service systems - how new businesses can be created which will reduce
disposal such as diaper laundering and hire services
slide 23
Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Program Measurement & Evaluation
Challenges
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Difficult to measure direct waste
prevention impacts of many
programs (e.g., education)
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Confounding factors limit
reliability of measurements of
program effectiveness
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Dearth of evaluation and data
collection efforts (many programs
are relatively new); evaluation
reports that do exist are
frequently not publicized or made
easily accessible
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Strategic Approach to
Waste Prevention
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Individual waste prevention programs should be integrated in a
coherent overall strategy to maximize effectiveness
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Sustainable consumption initiatives, such as those underway in
Europe, offer significant waste prevention potential
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Focus on priority materials and/or sectors
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Measuring effectiveness of waste prevention programs is
challenging but important
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Government partnerships with the private sector, NGOs and other
stakeholders are critical for success
Economic instruments such as taxes or fees should be part
of the mix
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Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007
Key Sources of Information
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Recent waste prevention research and consulting projects for:
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OR Department of Environmental Quality
 Solid Waste Prevention and Reuse: Research and Evaluation
WA Department of Ecology
 Stimulating Waste Reduction, Pollution Prevention, and Increased
Secondary Materials Use in Washington Industry
MA Department of Environmental Protection
 Waste Reduction Program Assessment and Analysis for
Massachusetts
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
 Resource Conservation Challenge – Benefits Associated with Solid
Waste Management Programs
Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste
4/12/2007