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

slide 24/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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 isnt: 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

slide 34/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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

slide 44/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Four Stages of Material Flows ProductionDistributionRetailConsumption Raw Materials Waste prevention opportunities at all stages

slide 54/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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

slide 64/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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

slide 74/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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

slide 84/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Waste Prevention Best Practices 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

slide 94/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Waste Prevention Best Practices Retail Minimize packaging Leasing and servicizing Product stewardship/ Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) EPP and supply chain management Resource Management contracting

slide 104/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Waste Prevention Best Practices 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

slide 114/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Leading Waste Prevention Programs: United States, Europe and Canada CA NY WA OR MA British Columbia Europe VT

slide 124/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Vermont Manufacturing Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Census Bureau and Commerce Department

slide 134/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Production: Washingtons 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

slide 144/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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

slide 154/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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 Recycling Regulation includes core EPR requirements for beverage containers with plans to transform electronics (e-waste), tire and battery recycling programs into EPR programs

slide 164/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Production: EUs Restrictions on Hazardous Substances Directive EUs Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive Requires 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

slide 174/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Distribution/Retail: Californias Packaging Redesign Program CIWMBs 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

slide 184/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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

slide 194/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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

slide 204/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing 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

slide 214/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Consumption: Vermont Builds Greener Strong emphasis on house size; significant points for smaller houses and penalties for larger homes

slide 224/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste Consumption: Seattle and King County, WA Education and Technical Assistance - EcoConsumer (Gateway Program) - Home composting - Use it again, Seattle! - Waste prevention resources - Product stewardship

slide 234/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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

slide 244/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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

slide 254/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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

slide 264/12/2007Vermont Forum on Preventing Waste 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