Latest North American Perspective on Integrated Solid Waste Management

This presentation will provide an overview of integrated solid waste management in North America. It will then focus extensively on the current state of solid waste management, material recovery, waste to energy (WTE). It will provide insight on the current practices in place and the results achieved in the material and energy recovery. Further it will discuss the current trends followed by perception as to what lies ahead, the expectations and the opportunities.

by Ljupka Arsova, John Carlton

Mindfulness to solid waste issues in North America has been changing over the course of the last 40 years. Instead of being considered as having no value, industry, policymakers, and the greater public are becoming increasingly aware that waste has meaningful value for both the recovery of materials and the generation of energy. This awareness that waste is composed of multiple commodities has had a positive Impact on public attitudes toward recycling and source reduction, though there is still a longway to go before North America reaches comparable levels of recycling and waste reduction with communities throughout Europe. Regardless of the inherent difficulties inmeasuring source reduction, it is positioned at the top of United States (U.S.) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s waste management hierarchy, and has resulted inmaterials substitution and changes in packaging design in addition to changes in practices both in the home and at work to reduce waste. Waste managers provide Services to meet waste management needs now deemed important and manage budgets, which are a growing percentage of a jurisdiction's budget. Planning has moved beyond anticipating next week's issues to getting public services ready to take on the challenges of another generation—and increasingly, to awareness of the need to create integrated, sustainable solid waste management Systems.

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published: Wasteconsult international, Waste-to-Resources 2015 (May 2015), 5|2015
Keywords: Policy Tax Instruments, Canada, Mexico, United States of America