Encourage new product design Regulate product design Carry out R&D for new product design Create incentive for product redesign Create economic disincentive for virgin material use Create disincentive for or regulate disposal Carry out R&D for resource recovery systems Create incentive for collection of source separated materials Create economic incentive for Encourage, require or create an economic incentive for source separation tion; and Figure 5 illustrates the points in the materials cycle where the various action program alternatives would have their impacts. For purposes of discussion, EPA's program efforts can be classified into three types of activities: (1) background studies that provide for understanding the subject of resource recovery in its many facets; (2) studies to formulate and to analyze action programs; and (3) studies to evaluate the impacts and effectiveness of action programs that appear to have merit. In what follows, the various past, on-going, and projected activities of EPA will be discussed under these headings. Background Studies. Background investigations include data collection, survey, and information classification in order to establish the status and trends of recycling and identify problems, barriers and opportunities for increased waste use. To date a number of background investigations have been completed and are nearing publication. A list of completed studies is presented on Table 11. These cover topics such as municipal resource recovery practices, secondary materials recovery, unit processes in resource recovery, and comprehensive recovery systems. Review of this information is underway, data and information gaps have been identified, and the need for further background investigations has been established in the following areas: (1) Recycling base line-In order to assess an incentive mechanism designed to increase recovery of wastes, it is first necessary to project future recycling that is likely to occur in the absence of the proposed incentive. Factors which could influence this base line are: • Rising municipal disposal costs. • Environmental legislation. • Recovery technology development. • Rising energy prices. • Change in labor productivity. • Private sector and local government actions. An investigation is being carried out to forecast this base line in the absence of Federal Government activity. (2) Available for recycling-It is also important to estimate the practical upper limit on recovery in order to assess the effectiveness of proposed recycling measures. It is not feasible to recover all of the solid waste generated. The amount available for recycling is determined by factors such as: • Losses in processing, collection and handling. • Amounts generated in remote areas. |