Building blocks for zero waste and maximum recycling:

product stewardship, design for the environment, tax restructuring, sustainable jobs, and markets for recovered materials

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Product Stewardship:

Product stewardship and producer responsibility both require an understanding that the old municipal responsibility model is not adequate to address the continuing cycle of the creation, use, and disposal of goods and resources that marks our present way of doing business. “Producer responsibility” essentially says that manufacturers should bear the burden of addressing the environmental impacts of the products they make, and should be required to provide recycling systems, and/or reduced environmental impacts, as part of the cost of doing business. Product stewardship recognizes the reality that these costs will be passed on to the consumer, to the extent that competition allows, and says that businesses, consumers, and government have a shared interest in and responsibility for resolving these issues.

Product stewardship efforts include both voluntary and legislative solutions for discarded product management, and currently include such materials as electronic discards (computers and monitors, televisions, and cell phones), carpeting, and paint. Deposit and refund systems for automotive batteries and other parts, called core charges, have existed for many years entirely in the private sector, as a product stewardship mechanism between manufacturers and consumers, with the product retailer as the point of implementation. More recently, many states have enacted legislation setting up similar systems for motor oil and tires, and some states have passed laws creating such systems for beverage containers.

What Can Local Government Do?

Solid waste management is still primarily a local government responsibility. Particularly during times of fiscal crisis, the need to use public funds for the disposal of problem materials that are created far beyond local borders may come at the expense of other important public services.

Although producer responsibility legislation is difficult to implement as an individual community, local government can adopt resolutions and policies calling for the involvement of manufacturers in establishing solutions to discard and recovery problems. In addition, local governments can participate through lobbyists and associations in advocating for action at the state and federal level.

Local governments can work with existing manufacturing and retail businesses within their own communities to establish take-back and recycling systems for the products and materials created and sold at the local level. Local government can provide technical assistance through waste reduction staff in setting up such systems, in helping to obtain funding for these efforts through available grant programs, and through offering to perform waste reduction audits for businesses operating within local boundaries.

Task One: Gather Information.

Create a list of local businesses and manufacturers who use or sell the targeted products or materials, such as electronics, paint, carpeting, etc. Contact representatives of these businesses and gather information regarding size, number of employees, types of products made or sold, and relationship of the business to markets and suppliers both within and outside of the local community. If possible, arrange for a tour of the local facility to meet the staff in person and to gather first-hand knowledge of the operation. Determine the appropriate person, or persons at the facility to discuss waste reduction and disposal issues.

Task Two: Initiate Discussion.

Invite representatives from local businesses and manufacturers to join with others in designing local solutions for the management of problem products and materials. Convene a small, short-term working group to take input from the larger group and work toward a solution.

Task Three: Develop a Proposed Solution.

Working group prepares options and recommendations for presentation to the appropriate governing body. Staff report includes background, introduces the working group, requests board action, and direction to staff for implementation.

Product Stewardship Options at the Local Level:

Ø Adopt a resolution

Ø Advocate for legislation

Ø Establish local take-back programs with retailers and manufacturers

Ø Create a local task force

Design for the Environment:

As manufacturers and engineers begin to incorporate resource conservation and recovery principles into the creation of new materials and products, the benefits of intelligence, experience and technology combine to offer new solutions instead of new problems. Product design and marketing have always had a primary goal of creating goods that people will buy, and there have always been many limiting factors to be taken into consideration as part of that process. What is the cost of material, production, transport, and marketing, compared to the “value” to the potential customer? How do the appearance, function, construction, and cost of the item combine to appeal to buyers? Is the product safe for consumers to own and use? Is there a potential for long term liability from ownership and use of the product?

It is primarily due to increased concern over product safety and liability that the concept of design for the environment is becoming part of the product design dialogue. How will this product potentially affect the health of its owners, now and in the future? It is a logical step from this question to the larger issue of the potential impact of those same products and materials on our environment. Our air, land, and water are affected by the end products of mining and manufacturing, and the regulation of hazardous materials has grown in an attempt to protect us from these side affects of our consumption.

Design for the environment acknowledges these impacts, and attempts to proactively reduce and eliminate them by changing material and product design at the front end, rather than attempting to collect, treat, and neutralize such threats at the end of the manufacturing process, or by relegating the problem to be handled by local governments at the end of the product’s useful life.

What Can Local Government Do?

Government’s greatest ability to influence the content and environmental impact of products and materials is through its role as a purchaser of goods and services. Governments at all levels are typically among the largest employers in the communities where they are located, and as such, are able to lead by example in many areas.

Many local governments have adopted purchasing policies that require the use of recycled-content products whenever feasible. Reviewing these policies, and amending them to include other environmental considerations, will help to make “design for the environment” an accepted and expected practice at the local level.

Task One: Review Existing Policies.

Evaluate existing purchasing policies to determine current requirements for recycled-content and environmentally preferable product purchasing. Talk with purchasing agents in general services and large departments to determine the extent to which existing policies are being followed.

Task Two: Gather Information.

Review the information provided through links to this document and enclosed resources to become familiar with the elements of design for the environment, such as recycled content, reduced material use, reduced pollution and toxicity, reusability, and durability, etc.

Task Three: Prepare and Distribute Guidelines.

Help to educate local government staff and local businesses that provide goods and services to local government about design for the environment (DfE). Include tips on what businesses can do to incorporate DfE into their business practices.

Task Four: Revise and Adopt Policy.

After responding to comment from affected departments and local businesses, incorporate DfE language into existing procurement policies, and adopt and distribute the revised policy. Whether businesses are required or encouraged to comply with these guidelines may be determined by local circumstances, by the size of the business or the bid, or may be structured to be phased in over a period of time.

Task Five: Prepare and Distribute Bid Language.

Work with purchasing and department heads to implement the policy by creating language to be used in bids and requests for proposal to support the adopted policy. Adapt language as needed to reflect the specific circumstances (for example, public works construction projects, general services paper purchasing, vehicle purchases and maintenance, cleaning products, etc.).

Task Six: Monitor and Evaluate Results.

Work with affected departments to determine how information about the results of the policy will be collected and shared. Identify the appropriate person in each department to serve as the reporting contact. Evaluate changes to products and services over time as a result of the policy.

What is Design for the Environment?

“For a typical product, 70% of the cost of development manufacture and use is determined in its design phase. By integrating environmental considerations into the upfront product design, a company can increase efficiency, reduce waste of materials and energy, and reduce costs.

This is Design for Environment (DfE).”

From the website of the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance

Tax Restructuring:

Public policy often serves as a mechanism to provide incentives and disincentives for desired behavior by both businesses and individuals. Historically, our development as a materials extraction society has led to the existence of preferential tax rates, or subsidies, for the mining of trees, minerals, and petroleum. If we are to become successful at mining discarded resources from our stream of wasted materials, similar policies will be needed to create a level playing field.

Even within our existing municipal structures, elected officials and the public often draw an unfair comparison between the familiar model of waste disposal, which collects discards and charges to waste them, and materials recovery, which collects discards and charges to recover them. People are accustomed to paying for wasting, but somehow are not willing to accept the idea of paying for recycling, reuse, and composting.

What Can Local Government Do?

Although most tax policy is beyond the ability of local government to control, there is much that local government can do to encourage resource recovery by leveling the playing field. Even in the task of evaluating and comparing the cost for disposal and for recycling, local government can be sure that it makes a fair comparison.

In most communities, the majority of the cost for waste disposal is the cost of collection, which historically can be as much as two-thirds of the total price for collection and disposal. In some communities, landfilling costs have increased due to environmental regulation and economies of scale, so that disposal may actually represent half or more of the total waste management cost. A fair comparison would match the collection cost for recycling to the collection cost for disposal, and the net cost for processing and marketing recyclables to the cost for disposal.

In addition, local government can restructure disposal rates to encourage separation and recovery, by charging less for disposal of waste from which the generator has removed all recyclables, and more for waste that is received without such separation. Volume and weight-based disposal rates, where the amount charged to the customer is directly related to the amount disposed, are rate re-structuring mechanisms within the control of local government, and result in significant reductions to the amount of waste disposed. See incentives for more information.

Sustainable Jobs:

As we struggle to find our place in the global economy, displaced workers are an increasing problem at the local, state, and federal level. This transition coincides in many rural areas with a decline in traditional resource extraction-based industries such as fishing, forestry, and mining. Yet this same history of resource-dependent economies can provide for a natural transition to new and more sustainable jobs in the realm of resource recovery and enhancement.

While local conservation corps often work to restore the natural environment, planting trees, restocking fisheries, and rebuilding and improving habitat for plant and animal life alike, there are also highly skilled workers from mills and manufacturing who need retraining and new direction.

Establishing collection systems and infrastructure for recovering discards, and creating new manufacturing capacity to process these materials into new products, provides an additional tool for economic development and recovery in many isolated and disadvantaged communities.

Adopting the policies to support the development of sustainable jobs is the first step in the process.

What Can Local Government Do?

Most local governments are continually searching for sources of revenue to help offset the cost of providing public services. Local economic development staff work with community organizations and project proponents on a regular basis to apply for funding from state and federal agencies.

In addition, many communities have created local economic development plans, which outline actions to be taken at the local level to facilitate the creation of jobs to improve the economic health of the community.

As these economic development plans are revised and updated, opportunities are created to incorporate principles of sustainability and support for material recovery businesses into the local economic development strategy.

Task One: Review Existing Plans and Policies.

Obtain copies of local economic development plans and policies to determine the extent to which sustainability and material recovery have been incorporated into existing documents. If needed, research examples of economic plans from other communities that include these goals. Determine when the next plan revision will occur.

Task Two: Draft Sustainability and Material Recovery Language for Local Plan.

Work with local economic development coordinators and representatives from environmental and labor organizations to develop plan goals and policies for sustainable and environmental job creation. Seek input from various stakeholder groups, and circulate for review and comment.

Task Three: Incorporate Sustainability and Material Recovery Goals into Plan.

At the next opportunity, work to ensure that sustainability and material recovery goals are included in the local economic development plan.

Task Four: Apply for Funding.

Meet with local economic development coordinator to identify potential sources of funding for material recovery and other sustainable jobs. Determine the schedule and requirements for submitting an application. Work with other community organizations to prepare and submit a competitive application for funding.

Task Five: Keep Participants Informed.

If your application is approved, be sure that all targeted participants are involved with and kept informed about project activities. Make sure that everyone knows what their tasks and rewards will be. Pat yourself on the back, and get to work!

Incorporating Material Recovery Jobs into Local Economic Development Policy:

“Because of the population size of Humboldt County and its smaller industrial base, it would be more effective to integrate many of the recycled materials and systems into the already existing economic infrastructure and industrial/business clusters than to create new businesses. Recycling will work more effectively if it becomes adopted as a real part of the local economy. In this way locally collected recycled materials or potentially collected materials could be integrated as feedstock or as an additional product available through the industrial clusters that were identified as growing, emerging and transforming.”

From the Humboldt County Overall Economic Development Plan Revision; Recycling/Reuse Business Section