Leading Waste Prevention Efforts in the U.S. and Abroad Prepared by: James Goldstein Tellus Institute Boston, MA Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Vermont.

Leading Waste Prevention Efforts in the U.S. and Abroad

Prepared by: James Goldstein

Tellus InstituteBoston, MA

Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste

Vermont Department of Environmental ConservationMontpelier, VT

April 12, 2007

Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste slide 2 4/12/2007

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.”

What it is: Product, building, packaging design; upstream of the user; pre-consumer, 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


Waste Prevention vs. Recycling

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


Four Stages of Material Flows

Production Distribution Retail Consumption

Raw Materials

Waste prevention opportunities at all stages


Waste Prevention Methods/Tools

How We Make Things: Productivity Improvements- P2, lean manufacturing, industrial ecology, green permits, and technological advances: light-

weighting, miniaturization and dematerialization, micro- and nano-technology

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


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


Waste Prevention Best Practices

Production Resource Productivity Improvements

- Pollution prevention (P2)

- Lean manufacturing

- Green permitting

- Industrial ecology

- Technological advances: light-weighting, miniaturization and dematerialization, micro- and nano-technology

Alternative Business Models- Promoting Design for Environment (DfE)

- Supply chain management

- Product stewardship

- Leasing and “servicizing”



Distribution

Packaging tax, pre-disposal fees, point-of-sale levies

- Minimize packaging

- Reusable packaging/shipping containers

Packaging ordinances

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

Supply chain management



Retail

Minimize packaging

Leasing and “servicizing”

Product stewardship/Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

EPP and supply chain management

Resource Management contracting



Consumption

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP)

Public Awareness and Action

- Consumer education regarding waste prevention

- Emerging sustainable lifestyle movement, including the simplicity movement

- Community-Based Social Marketing

Pay-As-You-Throw for municipal

(residential) sector


Leading Waste Prevention Programs: United States, Europe and Canada

CA

NY

WA

OR

MA

British Columbia

Europe

VT


Vermont Manufacturing

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Census Bureau and Commerce Department


Production:Washington’s “Beyond Waste” Program

Adopts Materials Flow Framework

- 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:

- Mainstream green building practices in Washington

- Maximize reuse and recycling of C&D materials

- Transform the way buildings and materials are designed


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)

- “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


Production: British Columbia Product Stewardship

British Columbia Product Stewardship Programs

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), places onus for end-of-life product management on producers and consumers rather than general taxpayers

- Shifts responsibility (physically and/or economically, fully or partially) upstream to the producer

- 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


Production: EU’s Restrictions on Hazardous Substances Directive

EU’s Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) DirectiveRequires manufacturers to replace mercury, lead, hexavalent chromium, and

other heavy metals in a variety of products

Applies to:

- Large household appliances

- Small household appliances

- Computing & communications equipment

- Consumer electronics

- Others

Other similar regulations: China, Japan


Distribution/Retail: California’s Packaging Redesign Program

CIWMB’s Packaging Redesign Program

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: - Composites

- Paper

- Plastic

- Steel/Metal

- Wood


Distribution/Retail: Germany Packaging Ordinance and Green Dot Trademark

German Packaging Ordinance

- Manufacturers and distributors must take back used, empty sales packaging from consumers free of charge

- Does not apply to companies in the dual system whereby packaging is regularly collected from private households

- 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)

- Register their packaging/articles

- Send DSD regular statements of actual quantities sold


Distribution/Retail: Netherlands Extended Producer Responsibility

Netherlands Packaging Covenant

Voluntary approach to packaging reduction; aims to decouple GDP growth and packaging; agreement to cap packaging tons disposed

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)

2006 Packaging, Paper and Board Management Decree: requires producers to pay for separate collection of household packaging waste


Consumption: Washington Beyond Waste

Program takes on “the substantial task of redefining American consumerism and culture;” views waste as inefficient resource use

Key elements include:

- Make green building practices mainstream

- Establish organics recovery cycle

- Reduce mercury and PBDE in product manufacturing


Consumption: Vermont Builds Greener

Strong emphasis on house size; significant points for smaller houses and penalties for larger homes


Consumption:Seattle and King County, WA

Education and Technical Assistance- EcoConsumer (Gateway Program)

- Home composting

- “Use it again, Seattle!”

- Waste prevention resources

- Product stewardship


Consumption: United Kingdom National Resource and Waste Forum

Established the UK Framework for Waste Prevention to address the link between increased wealth and waste

Started by addressing demand side through a local action toolkit - Home and community composting of yard, food and other organic waste -

potentially 25-30% of household waste

- Smart shopping - how the consumer can reduce packaging waste and single use products

- Paper waste - how householders and community groups can stop unwanted mailings

- Product life - how the community can encourage repair and reuse of products including resale/redistribution

- Service systems - how new businesses can be created which will reduce disposal such as diaper laundering and hire services


Program Measurement & Evaluation Challenges

Difficult to measure direct waste prevention impacts of many programs (e.g., education)

Confounding factors limit reliability of measurements of program effectiveness

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


Strategic Approach to Waste Prevention

Individual waste prevention programs should be integrated in a coherent overall strategy to maximize effectiveness

Sustainable consumption initiatives, such as those underway in Europe, offer significant waste prevention potential

Focus on priority materials and/or sectors

Economic instruments such as taxes or fees should be part of the mix

Measuring effectiveness of waste prevention programs is challenging but important

Government partnerships with the private sector, NGOs and other stakeholders are critical for success


Key Sources of Information

Recent waste prevention research and consulting projects for:- 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

Leading Waste Prevention Efforts in the U.S. and Abroad Prepared by: James Goldstein Tellus Institute Boston, MA Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Vermont.

Documents

waste production

toxicity of waste

waste program

servicizing slide

composting slide

green building slide

ma vermont forum

commerce department