3. Facilitate where possible multijurisdictional solid waste management utilities through enabling legislation for cooperative agreements between cities and counties. 4. Give priority to use of recycled materials in procurement policies. Collection LOCAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT 1. Collect municipal solid wastes or contract for collection services in an efficient and cost effective manner. 2. Upgrade collection productivity and thereby reduce collection costs (80 cents of the local solid waste dollar) to the optimum extent possible. Resource Recovery and Disposal 1. Implement systems that incorporate mixes of proven processes customized to meet a particular set of local needs and circumstances. 2. Combine, where economies of scale dictate, transfer, separation, volumetric reduction, disposal and recycling of municipal solid waste into multijurisdictional or regional arrangements. 3. Dispose of municipal solid waste inproperly controlled sanitary landfills. 4. Consider landfilling primarily for residuals; and, where sanitary landfilling is the most feasible disposal method for the time being, regard it as an interim procedure until such time as it can be integrated into more environmentally acceptable and cost effective approaches. Management 1. Maintain proper and adequate cost accounting procedures for accurate, speedy identification of costs and cost breakdowns and for optimum flexibility and accountability in solid waste management and planning. 2. Upgrade systems efficiencies where possible for maximum cost effectiveness. 3. Establish standards and implement practices which assure and guard the safety of departmental workers, and require the same of contracting companies. 4. Give priority to use of recycled materials in purchasing policies. J. Barbara W. Harnish, "Solid Waste Disposal Considerations in the 91st Congress, 1971," Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, pp. 6-11: RECENT REPORTS AND THEIR RECOMMENDATIONS 1. American Chemical Society, Cleaning Our Environment, Washington, D.C., 1969. This report gives an objective account of the current status of the science and technology of solid waste. The report focused on chemistry, chemical engineering, and related disciplines in an effort to expand chemical awareness of problems with a chemical basis for solution. Their recommendations were divided into several categories; they were: P Municipal Solid Wastes The appropriate federal state and local government agencies should press their efforts to define the nature and magnitude of the solid wastes problem both now and in the future. Education, research, and demonstration, and local regional planning for solid wastes management, utilization, and disposal are all necessary for progress in this neglected area. The use of known peripheral science and technology in developing improved methods for sanitary landfill and incineration should be encouraged and supported. Efforts to develop a more scientific basis for composing should also be supported, particulary in the area of the biochemistry and related aspects of the degradation process. Research and development on utilization and recycle of components of municipal refuse and incinerator residue should be maintained at a level that will insure that radically new approaches are not over-looked. Continuing attention should be paid to collection and transportation of municipal refuse, both in the development of improved technology and in mechanisms for promoting the application of such technology by local agencies who are responsible for handling and disposing of municipal refuse. Junked Automobiles Efforts by private industry to improve the economics of the auto scrap processing industry should be stimulated. The development of scrapping methods that would permit the use of less costly equipment, and of radically new scrapping methods, should be pursued at all levels. The development of new means of utilizing junked vehicles should also be encouraged and supported, with emphasis on methods of recycling the metals. Industrial Solid Wastes Efforts to improve the economics of recycling of solid materials by the secondary materials industry should be encouraged. A distinction should be maintained between solid materials that are to be recycled and those that are true solid wastes. Studies should be made of the chemical and physical nature and the volume of industrial solid wastes, insofar as proprietary problems allow, in order to support the conception and design of equipment, including incinerators, for disposing of them economically. Mining and Processing Wastes Research and development on processes for recovering various minerals from mining and processing wastes should be maintained at an adequate level against the day when changing economics warrant the recovery of such minerals. Work on other means of utilizing or disposing of these wastes should also be maintained at a steady level. The effort to upgrade solid wastes management, utilization, and disposal should be justified on the basis of esthetic values and control of air and water pollution. 2. National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Ad Hoc Committee on Solid Waste Management, Policies for Solid Waste Management, Washington, D.C., 1970. This report made the following recommendations concerning solid waste management policies: That there be established a solid waste management information center designed to accumulate all applicable present and future information from both foreign and domestic sources, evaluate, and disseminate this information to various groups. This is being accomplished to a certain extent by the Bureau of Solid Waste Management's Solid Waste Information Retrieval System. That research, development and large- or full-scale demonstrations of solid waste systems and components be carried out in metropolitan areas where solid waste problems derive from the several sectors of the community. That there be substantial expansion of efforts to improve management, information, planning and manpower training in the solid disposal area. 3. Executive Office of the President, Office of Science and Technology, Solid Waste Management, Washington, D.C.. 1969. Another ad hoc group was commissioned by the Office of Science and Technology to investigate solid waste management procedures. Their recommendations included the following: A broadly expanded research, development, and demonstration program in solid waste management should be adopted by the Federal Government with the goals of cost reduction, recycling of solid wastes for reuse, protection of the environment, and better service to urban areas, to manufacturing, agricultural, and mineral extraction and processing industries, and to Federal establishments. Establishment of educational programs at universities for engineers, planners, economists, public administrators, public health administrators and other disciplines confronted with the problems of solid waste management in the course of their professional service to the public. Establishment of training programs for public officials and employees, and for information services to the general public on any or all aspects of solid waste management. Designation within the Federal Government of an interagency group chaired and possibly staffed by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare for solid wastes. This group, or committee, would establish goals, set priorities and coordinate all Federal solid waste research, development, and demonstration activities. The group would also establish guidelines and consider the expertise of each constituent Federal Agency and seek cooperation in achieving goals in the various sub-systems of solid waste management systems. These sub-systems include waste sources, collection and tranport, processing and utilization, and disposal of solid wastes. The inter-agency group should develop a comprehensive 5-year plan for research, development and demonstration programs on solid waste management. This plan, to be revised annually, would cover the agreed upon tasks to be included by all of the participating Federal departments and agencies in their budgets, and would serve as the basis for presentation of a coordinated program funding request for inclusion in the Administration budget for submission to the Congress. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, with the assistance of the inter-agency group, should be responsible for the preparation of an annual report to the President and the Congress as to progress made by the participating departments and agencies on the plan, and on the status of overall national efforts for improvement in solid waste management. Provision be made for continuing Federal support to those responsible state agencies which have completed state plans for solid waste management. This State Program support will enable these agencies to implement the research, development, and demonstration programs which have been developed. Encouragement of private industry to develop and demonstrate new technologies to improve solid waste management, to stimulate salvage and recovery of materials and resources, and reduce the quantity of solid waste generated. Agencies of the Federal Government, should study constraints and incentives to encourage industry, and to explore other possible means of getting industrial cooperation in research, development, and demonstration programs. Recognition by Federal installations of a special obligation to develop the best solid waste technology and to undertake reSearch development, and demonstration projects with the goal of minimizing the impact of solid wastes from these sources upon the environment. Convening of a National Conference on Solid Waste Management for the purpose of correlating information in the solid waste field and for stimulating further research, development, and demonstrations. Attendees at the conference should include representatives from all levels of government, industry, universities and other groups with an interest in solid waste management. * * * * * * 4. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, The Role of Packaging on Solid Waste Management, 1966 to 1976. Rockville, Md., 1969. In this report the following suggestions were made for mitigating the problems caused by packaging materials in waste disposal: Research and development should be oriented toward three basic areas: development of materials which are more easily disposed of, separated and re-used; development of disposal technology that will be capable of handling packaging wastes without trouble; and, development of a technology of salvage and re-use. Educational efforts which would disseminate, exchange and/or develop in suitable form information concerning packaging materials and their performance in waste disposal or salvage facilities, on the assumption that the recipients of the information will voluntarily modify their activities as soon as they clearly Incentive and subsidy type mechanisms, especially in attempts to improve salvage; for example, price supports of secondary materials and tax credits for scrap processors and materialsusing industries to stimulate their investment in necessary secondary materials processing and using plant. A packaging use tax, levied on all packages, whose aim would be to obtain sufficient revenues for the disposal of the packages in the most efficient manner permitted by present disposal technology. Under this concept, when a consumer pays for a package, he pays for its disposal. A deterrent tax imposed on either a packaging material or a container configuration in order to limit use of a material by artificially raising its prices. Federal regulation by such means as the establishment of standards, the control of production through quotas, the prevention of unfair trade practices, quality monitoring, or full scale regulation of industry as practices in land, air and water transport by the Civil Aeronautics Board, Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Maritime Commission. K. Judith A. Hufnagel, "Solid Waste Management and Recycling,' Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress (1973), pp. 656-668: LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS Various legislative proposals introduced during the 92d Congress illustrate the wide expanse of problems which one encounters when dealing with solid waste management. The variety of solutions proposed demonstrates the lack of consensus on how to approach the problem of solid waste and resource management. The fact that none of the legislation was passed by either House is further indication that piecemeal legislation is not the final solution to the problems of solid waste management. The hearings held in relation to the legislation introduced indicate that there is a need to perceive the problems associated with solid waste in the context of resource management. One major group of bills deal with encouraging material recycling. Research GENERAL RECYCLING Several bills aimed at increasing Federal aid for research into new uses for waste materials such as sewage, chemical, coal mining, and dredging wastes. A few bills would have authorized aid for studies of recycling and the factors affecting recycling. One bill was aimed specifically at authorizing a study of the effects of freight rates on the use of secondary materials. Tax credit Several methods of improving the economics of recycling were proposed in legislation in 1971 and 1972. These bills include proposals to change the existing tax structure through changing amortization |