Managing municipal solid waste

During the last four or five years, the waste management spotlight has focused mainly on hazardous waste. Now, suddenly municipal solid waste management has emerged as a national issue. This burst of attention usually signifies the emergence of a crisis. It is clear that solid waste management is a serious problem in many urban areas and we need to get on top of it right now. First, we need to cut the quantity of waste we produce and substantially increase our recycling rate. Next, incineration, with attendant energy-recovery is going to be necessary in urban areas, where new landfills will be difficult or impossible to develop. And we will still need well-managed landfills to handle some solid waste directly, as well as to receive incinerator ash or nonrecyclable items. The exact percentages of source reduction, recycling, incineration and landfilling will require state-by-state, locality-by-locality planning. The salient point is that such planning needs to be done and publicly discussed today, not next year. Every state and local planning unit needs a vision for where it is heading in solid waste management. Individual decisions for incinerators or landfills as well as recycling programs should be made in the context of overall plansmore » and goals.« less