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The skyrocketing single-plastic demand during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic proved the limitation of top-down environmental policies in accomplishing sustainable consumption and waste management. Nevertheless, 'smart consumers' can make smart choices for sustainable development. However, a review of the South Korean environmental education curriculum reveals that the current structure heavily leans towards the elementary level and does not enlighten the public on 'what' and 'how' to live sustainably. This study uses a quick survey to suggest that the effectiveness of environmental education may be enhanced if: (1) guidance on how to live with the natural environment in harmony for collective cooperation towards resilient and sustainable community building is incorporated with a clear purpose, (2) environment-friendly culture-building activities are enforced to institutionalise a new paradigm of sustainability to replace today's consumerism, and (3) contents are updated regularly to include Earth and environmental science knowledge in the state of art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An environmental frontrunner in the Central and Eastern European regions since the late 1990s, Hungary followed a gradual but steady approximation progress to the EU environmental legislation. Previous research established an important role of the participation of economic and societal stakeholders in the decision-making and implementation process based on EU environmental legislation in Hungary. With the victory of the FIDESZ party in the parliamentary elections of 2010, the new government started to change the 'rules of the game' by nationalising infrastructures and weakening market access to foreign stakeholders. Focusing on the water and waste management sectors, the article analyzes the stages that brought Hungary to the recent governments' policy changes. We argue that these changes have departed from the environmental policy practices established during the EU accession process and represent a challenge and a potential backsliding in the implementation of the EU environmental legislation in Hungary. Such changes in policy policies need to be seen in the context of the recent transformation of the political order and of the state–market relations in Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Policy Brief, we argue that current U.S. waste disposal strategies (recycling, displacement and disposal) do not address waste reduction, are perceived as socially unfair, and cannot keep pace with the ever-increasing proportion of plastic waste discarded. Factors including low demand for recycled plastic, recent bans on importation of foreign plastic waste, cheap feedstocks and an increase in the production of single-use plastic items are converging to worsen the problem of plastic waste. Plastic waste is ubiquitous in the environment, and threatens human health, wildlife, and ecosystems. We discuss how current policies developed, and examine four major policy strategies used by the European Union (product bans, extended producer responsibility laws, taxes and fees, and ecolabeling). Finally, we provide recommendations as to which would be most effective in moving the U.S. away from its overreliance on recycling and disposal, and toward reduction of the amount of plastic waste generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crucial role of the informal economy in urban environmental management is yet to be acknowledged in policy-making. This paper explores the sustainability discourses that shape urban environmental policies, and how they relate to different conceptualisations of the informal economy. Focusing on Mexico City, this paper analyses the discourses of policy-makers and their reflection in the city's waste management plan. Results show reformist and radical discourses of sustainability are correlated with preferences as to the integration or exclusion of the informal economy in environmental policy. In addressing Mexico City's environmental challenges, policy-makers have embraced a reformist sustainability discourse that focuses on technological fixes to environmental degradation and promotes a techno-managerial mode of governing. This discourse is correlated with a view of the informal economy as a barrier to the sustainability transition, which leads to the exclusion of informal workers from the policy arena and renders invisible their working conditions and their contribution to urban life. The paper concludes that the reformist sustainability discourse obscures and reproduces environmental injustices – repoliticization of the sustainability discourses shaping urban environmental policies is necessary to achieve sustainability transitions that are also socially just. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roma communities in the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) region work in the informal economy through scavenging municipal waste. This conceptual paper has the aim of examining the extent for integration of scavenging into environmental policy through the development of a research paradigm applied to Roma and similarly marginalized non-Roma individuals. Evidence from studies of informal waste collection outside Europe suggests that in some cases it has been integrated into municipal waste management policy. In the CEE region, environmental policy insufficiently acknowledges the existence of informal scavenging whereby waste material categorization and disposal is not monitored to infer a research gap which is addressed in the research paradigm. This paper also adds to ongoing debate on entrepreneurship theory by developing a typology incorporating categories of ethnic (Roma) and informal (non-ethnic) entrepreneurship and thus serves to inform policy development for more socio-economically effective municipal waste collection and disposal in the CEE region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on an ethnographic fieldwork at a waste facility site in the northern parts of Sweden, this article investigates organizational framings of risk (Hutter and Power 2005) in relation to waste and practices of waste management, employing the concept of temporality. The suggestion is that organizational framings of risk, as it contributes to steering the risk perception of the employees, also cater to a particular temporal register. In relation to the purposes of this article, the risks that my informants mentioned and/or perceived – as part of a particular organizational framework – were most often seen in terms of situated inconveniences and hazards that required technical, and logistic solutions. While this enabled them to take action, it also contributed to bounding risk and risk perception to a particular temporal register, intimately linked to what Barbara Adam (1998) refers to as the logics of industrial time. The logics of industrial time also suffuse formulations of current environmental policies and waste management plans, on a national as well as on an EU level where waste is seen primarily as a resource that continuously needs to be invented anew. As such, the logics of industrial time follow closely the beat of market fluctuations. Talking to representatives for the current waste facility site and observing some of their daily activities, potential risks with waste and practices of waste management were often weighed against other factors such as effectiveness, swiftness, and economic profits or losses: factors that also corresponded to short-time temporalities. While this reasoning, at first seemed to outperform any notion of risk, it actually conformed to the risks acknowledged by the organizational setting of which my informants were part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of municipal solid waste (MSW) arisings has received great attention recently since it is not only a by-product of economic activity but also serves as an input to the economy through material or energy recovery. The main focus of this study is cultural formation and especially the current picture of waste culture and public perception across European Union (EU) member states. Thus, this study will first evaluate environmental efficiency with data envelopment analysis (DEA) based on five parameters: waste, gross domestic product (GDP), labour, capital, and population density for 22 EU Member States and for the years 2005, 2010 and 2015 in order to evaluate which Member States are more efficient. Then the efficiency results are contrasted to Hofstede's and Schwartz's cultural dimensions on STATA with the use of regression modelling. Results show that for year 2005 no significant relationship is noticed for both cultural models, whereas for years 2010 and 2015 there appears to be a significant connection. The above-mentioned findings can be associated with the financial crisis that has hit Europe after 2008 making people more sceptical, while EU legislations have laid out some important directives in the field of waste management. Finally, along with the factors above, EU has faced severe environmental challenges due to waste arisings, as well as accidents and injuries for people working in this sector, which in turn have widely modified EU's waste culture as supported by this study's results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing volumes of solid waste, implicated in environmental pollution and health problems, are central to the current environmental crisis. In two randomized field experiments, we demonstrate that convenience dramatically boosts recycling and composting rates in multi-family dwellings and university residences. When compost bins were placed on each floor in a multi-family residence, instead of on the ground floor, composting rates increased by 70%, diverting 27 kilograms of compost from the landfill per unit per year. When recycling stations were placed just meters from suites in student residences, instead of in the basement, recycling increased by 147% (container), and 137% (paper), and composting increased by 139%, diverting 23, 22, and 14 kilograms of containers, paper, and compost, respectively, from the landfill per person per year. Simply making recycling and composting convenient can significantly increase waste diversion, and as such this single intervention has important implications for waste management and environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, China is facing critical problems regarding the management of municipal solid waste (MSW). The failure of existing pilot programs in implementing MSW source-separated collection highlights the need to analyze the factors significantly influencing public participation in this activity. To this end, a comprehensive analysis of MSW source-separated collection in Guilin, which is representative of wider areas located in inland China and with a GDP around the national average, was conducted. The research consisted of in-person interviews involving a questionnaire and theoretical analyses in terms of public perception, public awareness, public attitude, and willingness to pay. The analytical results identify the status of waste source-separated collection and influencing factors in implementation, and provides exercisable suggestions for decision makers in both China and more generally in industrializing countries to design promotion programs and education campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper computes and analyses, for the first time, environmental efficiencies in waste generation of 116 European regions in NUTS 2 level in five European countries over the period of 2008–2010. For this reason, different data envelopment analysis (DEA) model formulations are used for modeling the pollutant in the form of waste generation as a regular output and as a regular input. In the latter case, we also use the notion of eco-efficiency. The empirical findings reveal environmental inefficiencies among the regions, indicating the lack of a uniform regional environmental policy among the European countries. This finding is observed not only for regions between different countries but also among the regions within countries, implying the need for implementation of unified appropriate municipal environmental policies in waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landfill waste has a negative impact on the environment and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are believed to be significant contributors. There is little government or scholarly research, however, quantifying the collective volume of waste SMEs send to landfill. Where studies do exist they measure total volumes (landfill and recycling combined) and/or do not distinguish between specific waste streams (e.g. wood) and subcategories (e.g. dust). This paper contributes to knowledge by giving insight into the collective volume of waste of 404 SMEs, reconceptualising SME waste into subcategories and by measuring landfill volumes. It presents findings from these 404 Australian SMEs which found that, in descending order, cardboard, paper, plastic wrap, wood dust and particleboard were the subcategories these SMEs sent to landfill in the greatest volumes. It also argues that this reconceptualisation, and associated data collection protocols, have the potential to enable scholars and policy makers to determine the waste subcategories to which SMEs contribute most, formulate targeted interventions and research or evaluate environmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ireland's engagement with European Union (EU) waste-management policy has been characterized by low issue salience and an ambiguous response from the public administration system which tolerated weak regulation despite the introduction of the waste framework directive in 1975. Ireland's serial non-compliance with EU legislation eventually culminated in a significant 2005 judgement from the Court of Justice of the EU in Case 494/01 which referred to a systematic failure in the application of waste rules. This forced the Irish authorities to address the fragmented nature of waste-management implementation and adopt a more effective and coordinated enforcement system. Against this backdrop Ireland's efforts to translate EU environmental directives into action are explored through the case of the Landfill Directive 99/31/EC. Top-down and bottom-up perspectives from implementation theory are used to interpret how public administration has adapted to the challenges of formal and practical implementation. This is complemented by empirical findings drawn from a survey and interviews with officials and waste-management stakeholders. It is argued that while Ireland's performance in waste management has improved, its progress to meet the targets of the directive has been frustrated by the structural shortcomings in the design of an appropriate implementation structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We empirically test the decoupling of waste dynamics with regard to economic growth and the effectiveness of environmental and specific waste-related policies, by exploiting an integrated data set for the EU15 over 1995–2007. We find that absolute delinking for waste generation is far from being achieved in the European Union (EU) despite the fairly stringent and longstanding policy commitment, which was and is still probably too biased towards waste management and waste disposal targets, rather than towards waste prevention per se. On the other hand, policy action as well as country structural factors seems to have an impact on landfill diversion. Country heterogeneity fairly matters: the seemingly unrelated regression analyses that we adopt, including models that tackle policy endogeneity, show that EU average figures often hide high variance in decoupling performances. EU countries can be consistently grouped according to their waste sustainability performances. The results provide food for thought for setting comprehensive EU waste policy strategies jointly aimed at waste reduction and landfill diversion. This is a relevant outcome and food for thought within an EU framework that is strongly oriented towards allowing countries to decide about the implementation of EU Directives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including climate change mitigation (CCM), implementation of policies relating to climate change adaptation (CCA), and waste management by municipalities.

Drawing on a participatory study of integrated organic waste management, this article explores the local political barriers and preconditions for its implementation in Diadema, Brazil. Solid waste management in Brazil is embedded in and mediated by a political framework that is characterised by uneven power geometries. This article explores how the local political context affects the potential for integrated organic waste management in Diadema, paying particular attention to relations between stakeholders. The discussion addresses the contested nature of deliberative decision-making spaces and the need for pro-active socio-environmental policies. The findings underline the importance of a praxis of everyday public participation that goes beyond rhetoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four main components of social capital are identified: social trust, institutional trust, social networks and compliance with social norms. A theoretical analysis explores the links between these components and environmental behaviour and policy in order to lay the ground for an investigation of the influence of social capital on the implementation of environmental policy. The influence of social capital on citizens' behaviour connected with two solid waste management policies is investigated empirically by means of a survey. The findings indicate some differentiation regarding the influence of the components of social capital upon environmental behaviour in the context of different environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive assessment was conducted of California's Used Oil Program, which was established in 1992 to reduce the illegal disposal, and promote the reuse, of used lubricating oil. This paper summarises selected key findings of the assessment and discusses them in the context of designing and implementing policy instruments for promoting environmentally responsible waste management. The approach known as 'community-based social marketing' is identified as a promising option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a heightened interest in the 'region' as a key site of economic activities. While regionalisation is often explained as part of the wider process of state scalar strategy in response to global economic restructuring, less attention has been paid to the role of the region in rescaling of environmental governance. This paper aims to fill the gap by drawing on the changing governance of municipal waste planning in the UK. Such a focus demonstrates that key elements of 'spatial Keynesianism' have been carried through, rather than superseded, in 'the new metropolitan reform'. Following a brief summary of the municipal waste problem and the influence of the EU regulatory measures in changing waste policy in the UK, the paper situates the regional institution building for waste planning in its historical and conceptual context. It then discusses the key rationales for regionalisation of waste in order to substantiate the central argument of the paper which is: the resilience of some of the key features of spatial Keynesianism in the new wave of metropolitan reforms. The final part of the paper unpicks the inherent tensions in state rescaling strategy and outlines the key factors that undermine the capacity of the state's reconfigured regional institutions to achieve their prescribed goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning that transcends participation processes is critical if public engagement is to translate into a legacy of enhanced environmental citizenship. However, a lack of empirical evidence has limited discussion to date to largely 'aspirational' claims. This paper offers the first rigorous examination of whether public participation does generate beyond-process social learning. Initially we review the literature on public participation and environmental citizenship to identify the key dimensions of social learning. We then re-visit a well-worked case study of an innovative public engagement process on the Hampshire waste strategy from the 1990s. Approximately one third of the original participants have been interviewed to identify whether and how the experience had a lasting effect on them. Key methodological difficulties are discussed, not least the analytical difficulties of attributing learning to a process that happened ten years previously. However, we argue that there is evidence that both instrumental and communicative learning have taken place, and conclude by identifying key areas that require further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of how best to govern waste is a challenging issue across the globe. As a result, new policy instruments, such as voluntary agreements, eco-labelling and market based instruments, frequently identified as being emblematic of a shift from government to governance are being developed and implemented in an attempt to improve waste management. In particular, the introduction of pay-by-use (PBU) mechanisms, where charges are based on the weight or volume of waste presented for collection, have been cited as a key means to promote the polluter pays principle (PPP) in the waste field. However, most analyses of waste charges have attempted to quantify PBU impacts in terms of tonnes of waste diverted from landfill, recycled or dumped illegally, and less consideration has been given to their development and implementation from a governing perspective. In response, this paper reports on a nationwide survey of PBU in Ireland that revealed a general increase in recycling and diversion from landfill since it was introduced in 2005. The paper concludes that although such metrics seem to support the introduction of PBU they must be read within a dynamic policy context characterized by limited information, increasingly privatized waste services and neoliberal statecraft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the issue regarding landscape policy and the stewardship responsibility of business in the U.S. It elucidates the best practices that every business enterprise should adopt in proper handling of waste products, which was discussed during the dialogue at Product Stewardship Institute (PSI). The author also discussed the relevance of sustainable development to the economy.

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Worldwide legislation coming into force requires considering new waste streams in order to achieve higher targets for material recovery and recycling. It is necessary, therefore, to manage waste materials in which different components are linked together and contaminants of various origins are present. Waste materials thus need to be treated that have a complex and often unknown composition and present different structural, morphological, and chemical properties. The physical and chemical characterization of solid waste is an essential step for the development of suitable treatment strategies, aimed at the recovery of one or more waste components. Scanning electron microscopy appears to be in most cases very helpful for waste characterization, providing information on material size, shape, structure, texture, distribution, and composition. Examples of waste characterization through scanning electron microscopy, finalized to material recovery, are reported. The waste materials taken into consideration include solids of different nature, such as spent lead batteries, cathode ray tubes (CRT), and printed circuit boards (PCB). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nature of the relationship between sustainable waste management behaviour between the 'home' and 'work' settings. A questionnaire survey of 566 employees of the Cornwall NHS (National Health Service) was used to examine the nature of the behaviour between the two settings and to understand the main factors influencing the behaviour. The results indicate that there is strong link in the behaviour of individuals between the two settings, with employees who practised recycling activities at home also being more likely to practise a similar behaviour at work. There was also some similarity in the level of sustainability of the behaviour between the two settings. These behaviours were strongly influenced by the underlying attitudes and beliefs of the staff towards the environment. The implications for policy-making to improve sustainable waste management behaviour amongst individuals in England and Wales are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors discuss the European Union (EU) rules about the disposal of electronic and electrical products. Widely available products such as cell phones, vacuum cleaners, stoves, and computers pose risks to both humans and the ecology if improperly discarded. The products, also known as e-waste, have been targeted by the EU in an effort to reverse their impact. The EU's decision also impacts such countries as the U.S., China, and Japan because of the manufacturers in those countries rely on exports. The three policy developments cover waste electrical and electronic equipment, restrictions on substances in electrical and electronic equipment (both in force as of 2003), and the regulation on the registration, evaluation, and authorization of chemicals used in manufacturing is effective 2007. INSETS: ENVIRONMENTAL AND HUMAN HEALTH THREATS FROM HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES;THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WEEE DIRECTIVE.

The article presents a notice on the printing and distribution of the "Technical Program for the Emergency Treatment of Wastewater Contaminated by the SARS Virus" and the "Technical Program for the Emergency Treatment and Disposal of Waste Substances Contaminated by the SARS Virus" issued on May 15, 2003. The notice was from China's State General Bureau of Environmental Protection and is addressed to various government agencies in China.

The vision of sustainable development is a driving force for change. To understand more about processes of local policy making, and their prerequisites for such change, it is relevant to examine how individual actors use briefing material and how they make assessments in complex planning situations. This study is about the processing of knowledge in a case of planning of a future waste management system. In this case, the written briefing material was shown to have less impact on the arguments and assessments of participating actors. Consequently, process facilitation for complex planning situations needs to support and strive for collective, reflective and transparent knowledge management. High-quality process support thus needs to have its emphasis on arguments, rather than on particular assessment tools and the written briefing material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the opportunities for and the benefits of considering gender in municipal waste management (MWM) policy. Two case studies in Ireland and the UK are presented. These show that the structural mechanisms for achieving a more consistent and coherent approach to ensuring that MWM policy is sensitive to gender differences and inequalities are still weak. They also show that political structures and champions for gender equality and equal opportunities make a difference to the way in which women are involved and considered in MWM policy making. The research is set within the broader context of environmental justice which, to date, has been more concerned with race, ethnicity and wealth inequalities than with gender inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal waste management in the UK has undergone rapid transformation in recent years in pursuit of greater sustainability. In this paper we explore the environmental justice issues and tensions involved in this shift. After a brief overview of environmental justice debates and how they have been related to issues of waste management, we describe how the policies and processes underlying the transformation from an overwhelming dependence on landfill disposal towards more sustainable methods of management has been driven by European legislation embodying principles premised on fundamental environmental concerns of inter- and intra-generational equity. We analyse the key means through which these principles have been translated to restructure local authority practices and the environmental justice issues arising from the implementation of international policy in regional and local context. Finally, we reflect on the implications of this case study for implementation of policies intended to advance both sustainability and environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental justice arguments focused on improving the quality of life of the poor contend that environmental ‘bads’ are more often located in areas of social disadvantage. In relation to waste facilities such claims of distributional outcomes have been enhanced by epidemiological analyses of apparent disease clusters in the vicinity. While politically engaging these arguments have been supported rarely by robust evidence. However, if repositioned in more structural issues related to the unequal societal distribution of power, resources and environmental burdens, they do prompt questions about the processes by which equitable decisions are made in a sustainable waste management context. The paper discusses the scientific and institutional barriers affecting the effective balancing of equity issues, arguing that while deliberative processes potentially challenge ‘expert black-boxing’ they also challenge current political and regulatory structures for waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disposal of vehicles at the end of their useful life is a rapidly growing waste management problem in New Zealand. Vehicles abandoned on public and private property impose environmental costs on society, as do some practices within the automobile recycling industry. The increasing number of vehicles entering the country will exacerbate these environmental costs. In this paper, New Zealand's abandoned vehicle problem is quantified and contributing factors identified. The end-of-life vehicle (ELV) management approaches of the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and the UK are examined, and their effectiveness assessed. Policies, such as extended producer responsibility and recycling targets are discussed in the context of an economy without domestic producers and with limited opportunities for economies of scale. Policy recommendations for New Zealand target four areas: legislation and institutional practices relating to vehicle licensing and disposal; entry of vehicles into the recycling system; information sharing; and dismantling operations. Key recommendations are the free acceptance of ELVs for recycling, an up-front disposal charge to cover the cost of de-pollution, licensing and monitoring of automotive dismantlers from within the industry, and the enforcement of vehicle licensing and disposal legislation in order to close the data gaps and overcome free-rider problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, the National Academy of Sciences of the United States published a study of coal waste impoundments. This study outlined several economic and environmental research issues that remain unknown to regulators and policymakers. In response to the National Academy report, this paper outlines economic considerations regarding the commercial, social and environmental issues surrounding coal waste disposal in the United States. Of particular emphasis is the absence of estimates regarding the level of regulation currently in place concerning coal slurry impoundments. Optimal regulatory interventions should, we argue, be founded upon an understanding of market structure and the incremental net benefits that may be achieved by regulatory change. We review issues in market structure and in estimation processes for environmental evaluation of coal waste impoundments in the United States. We recommend three broad areas of research. First, we suggest a comprehensive evaluation of existing coal slurry impoundments be performed, to include cost benefit studies with environmental considerations included. Second, we recommend extensive surveys of social and economic consequences of coal waste impoundments that evaluate non-environmental impacts. Finally, we recommend extensive clean coal research with focus on disposal and reclamation techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a rapid rise in the political saliency of the ever growing volumes of municipal waste produced in the UK. In this paper, we outline the preliminary findings of a research project that is examining the nature and development of municipal waste policy (MWP) in north-east England. We provide an overview of the changing national, regional and local policy framework for sustainable municipal waste policy, arguing that the European Landfill Directive has had a profound impact on policy priorities and goals at all levels. Nonetheless, commentators and policy makers alike have identified significant ‘barriers’ to progress, including institutional fragmentation, instability and uncertainty, financial constraints, and public participation. While the ‘barriers’ metaphor has served to identify some of the key challenges, we suggest that it offers only a partial view of the issues at hand and can serve to perpetuate an unhelpful division between the ‘technical’ and ‘social’, and between policy making and practice. In this paper, we develop a new conceptual framework for analysing MWP based on an understanding of the multiple modes of governing through which policy is constructed and contested. We argue that this approach is also relevant for other areas of environmental policy and planning which have, to date, only partially engaged with broader debates about the changing nature of the state and governance. Bringing these concerns into the analysis of environmental policy and planning is, we believe, a key challenge for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In planning the existence of structural differences in policy, beliefs among stakeholders are crucial. This study concludes that the most salient contrasts in beliefs about spatial and environmental planning concern the way the process is managed. Some of those contrasts reflect fundamental assumptions about the possibilities for reaching consensus and the relevance of involvement of actors in the process. The beliefs of the key actors involved in six siting decisions about waste infrastructure were identified and analysed by using Q methodology and cultural theory. This revealed that core beliefs about choices in environmental policy and waste management are connected with beliefs about spatial planning. The contrasts mainly concern issues of scale linked to competences regarding decision-making. The belief system of dominating actors is mainly hierarchical, combined with a technocratic approach to waste management prioritising incineration. Two alternative belief systems emphasised prevention as priority and egalitarian views on spatial decisions. Although the hierarchical approach of dominant coalitions was far from effective, the tendency remains of increasing top-own planning. Facility siting is increasingly framed in terms of larger areas and the reliance on hierarchical planning fits the authoritarian bias that emerges in such rescaling processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution examines what joining the European Union implies for Hungary's waste policies and waste practices. After providing a short overview of waste policies under state socialism, I analyse the differences between the waste structure and waste practices of Hungary and the EU. Using interviews and document analysis, this contribution demonstrates that the EU has been sending mixed messages to Hungary. On the one hand, it demands preventative waste policies; on the other hand, it promotes end-of-pipe technologies through aid, temporary exemptions, and EU-constituent corporations that enter the Hungarian market. Overall, compared to the state socialist past, the European Union represents a certain regression to the extent that waste-prevention and recovery are ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the outcomes of an Australian local government's use of public deliberation to inform its review of waste management. Concept of deliberative democracy; Views of theorist John Dryzek regarding the application of deliberative notions of democracy to environmental issues; Outline of the theoretical case for deliberative democracy in producing beneficial outcomes for the environment; Expected outcomes for the linking of democratic structures and deliberative ideal.

Environmental responsibility has become a major theme for universities. Most have an Environment Committee that advises their top administrators on practical approaches to enhancing environmental practices and education in the university with a broad mandate to develop a University Environment Policy and Implementation Strategy. An essential input into this process is the response from stakeholders to the performance of the policy and the strategy in terms of actions that are seen as both important to stakeholders and successful in achieving the desired outcomes. While not denying that stakeholders' perceptions may not reflect the actual environmental benefits of a policy, these perceptions are often influential in establishing the effectiveness and acceptability of a suite of environmental strategies. This paper focuses on establishing a framework within which a university can identify how important an issue is to stakeholders and track how successful it has been in addressing the issues of importance. A specific focus is placed on the mapping of these perceptions with each stakeholder segment to reveal the relative degrees of support. As part of the development of the University of Sydney's Environment Policy, the Institute of Transport Studies was commissioned to undertake a survey to identify the views of the university's key stakeholders on a number of environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1994 European Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste allowed a diversity of conceptions of waste management to be developed and tested in various countries. Such a diversity may raise drawbacks related to the achievement of the single market and the European law of competition. The paper describes the main differences in waste management regimes in five countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Greece. This comparative approach allows us, first, to identify four main variables in order to characterize policy regimes, explaining the degree of orientation of waste regimes to cost-effectiveness. Second, we will show that implementation has resulted, in each country, in learning, correction and self-regulation, thus reducing the initial divergences between national regimes. Hence, efficient harmonization of waste management regimes may be achieved unexpectedly in a soft way without passing stringent European directives. Moreover, if policy-makers were to adopt explicitly the option of experimenting with competing organizational and policy concepts, as an approach to European harmonization, it would reveal, by 2004, the cost-effectiveness of alternative solutions at a time when European policy has to be reconsidered. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction professionals are increasingly exposed to risk deriving from legal responsibility for environmental harm. To assess the levels of exposure to this risk, those involved in property need to understand the impact of environmental issues upon construction law. Construction law literature and specialist environmental law sources on construction can provide a basis for study. The main themes found in these sources are planning law, environmental protection, waste and waste management and contamination, including water pollution, and these are reviewed. A study of the litigation reported in the principal specialist construction law sources reinforces the significance of these themes through the identification of the case law embodying them. There are other areas of impact and potential impact: visual/aesthetic harm, harm to acoustic amenity, the use and removal of deleterious materials (such as asbestos) and other 'indirect' risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the ability of surveys to obtain a representative sample of opinions, one drawback to using surveys as mechanisms for citizen participation in environmental policy making is that citizens who respond may be unfamiliar with the issues. This study investigates whether providing balanced information in the survey impacts responses to a series of questions on waste management. Randomly selected residents in five New York counties received one of two survey versions. The ver sions were identical, except one contained information sidebars adjacent to a series of questions on waste management. Analysis showed that while respondents gave similar answers to demographic, behavior, and media usage questions, they responded quite differently to questions about waste management. Recipients of the information sidebars were more certain of their opinions and generally more positive toward the waste management options. The results suggest that providing balanced information in citizen surveys cansometimes lead to more deliberative responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the use of economic instruments in the implementation of environmental policy based on a study conducted by the European Union Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive in Great Britain. Implementation of competition-based models; Disadvantages of competition-based models; Role of competition in the creation of environmental policy.

Highlights the development of technology for treating hazardous waste in the U.S. Political and regulatory pressures to hazardous waste management; Land ban regulations that restrict the disposal of hazardous waste at landfills; Strategies for waste stabilization and bioremediation; Environmental policies.

The article highlights some cases of waste-trading where industrialized countries agreed with developing countries to dump their hazardous materials in these sites where the necessary environmental controls, regulatory infrastructure and public opinion are less developed. It presents a structural model of the waste production, handling and final disposal processes in defining the uncertainties and regulatory options. Lastly, it suggests that regulatory concerns should focus more on the point of production of the wastes and on better ordering of the ill-defined organizational environmental condition that make up waste life-cycles and their risks.

The article presents information on the 11th International Symposium on Environmental Issues and Waste Management in Energy and Mineral Production (SWEMP) that was held in Banff, Alberta, on November 16-19 2009. The aim of the symposium was to contribute to the development of methods and technologies for assessing, minimizing and preventing environmental problems involved with mineral and energy production.

Reports on the waste management measures in the United Kingdom as of June 1, 2003. Information on the Waste and Emissions Trading Bill; Overview of the European Landfill Directive.