From the summary:
Most of us like the idea of finding new and appropriate uses for things we thought we were done with. This is true whether we are a business or a household. Businesses that focus on profits know that finding a way to reuse materials can make them money. Households don't often recognize the value-added they provide to the economy by choosing to recycle; however their contribution can be significant to the overall wellbeing of the economy of the region as well as improving the environment of the region.
In 2012, the impact on Connecticut's economy, as measured in total sales due to recycling activity, is estimated to be over $746 million. Over seven years, from 2006 through 2012, this impact is estimated to be nearly $5.17 billion. Other measures of the overall economic activity associated with Connecticut's recycling activities in 2012 are estimated to include:
• Employment over 4,800
• Total value-added of $469 million, which includes:
o Labor income more than $275 million
o Indirect business taxes of nearly $59 million
o Other profit-type income of more than $134 million
While these numbers are substantial, they are conservative estimates of the overall impact of all aspects of the recycling activities in Connecticut. This conservative nature is a result of a the complex market structure of recycling in Connecticut which results in some dimensions associated with recycling not being classified in recycling or easily associated with that activity. Among these factors include efficiencies associated with some of the aspects of recycling which are not quantifiable but reduce costs, the economies associated with various reduced and avoided waste disposal requirements, and the economic values residents attach to having less land taken up with landfills or other waste disposal facilities.
However, this analysis has been as thorough as possible in accounting appropriately for all available data. Within the structure of Connecticut's economy this analysis was developed to provide a measure of the economic impacts associated with Connecticut's recycling activity for each year from 2006 through 2012. In addition, the following report extends this analysis to include an examination of the contributions of the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA). CRRA fills a critical role in overseeing an efficient materials recycling facility within the state and providing its knowledge to inform state policy. CRRA also provides an experiential and educational component of recycling in Connecticut through the CRRA Trash Museum.
See also:
Press release
Economics assumes people are rational actors in the market, but we know a lot less about how to manage money than we think....The conservative approach to government stems from a basic tenet of free-market economics: that people always act rationally to maximize their own benefits, and that from this rises a general state of well-being for society as a whole. But this isn't always true. One of the hottest academic disciplines to arise in the last few decades is behavioral economics, which explores the ways in which people behave irrationally. In addition, easy-predictable problems with certain markets prevent us from achieving the best outcomes. These two facts have consequences for how we should think about government in certain instances. There are many ways in which the government can make better decisions with our money than we can, and there are many ways that the Ryan budget would make society worse off by getting rid of government programs. Here are five:
Retirement Insurance...Health Care...Addressing Poverty...Disaster Relief...
All the Little Things
While I've been focused so far on specific things that the federal government can do better than individuals or the private market, there are a number of tiny things that local governments do to create the world in which you live--building roads, taking out the trash, keeping traffic flowing, and turning street lights on at night. Basically, we can call this "running your community." ...
From the summary:
As the world hurtles toward its urban future, the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW), one of the most important by-products of an urban lifestyle, is growing even faster than the rate of urbanization. Ten years ago there were 2.9 billion urban residents who generated about 0.64 kg of MSW per person per day (0.68 billion tonnes per year).
This report estimates that today these amounts have increased to about 3 billion residents generating 1.2 kg per person per day (1.3 billion tonnes per year). By 2025 this will likely increase to 4.3 billion urban residents generating about 1.42 kg/capita/day of municipal solid waste (2.2 billion tonnes per year).
This report provides consolidated data on MSW generation, collection, composition, and disposal by country and by region. Despite its importance, reliable global MSW information is not typically available. Data is often inconsistent, incomparable and incomplete; however as suggested in this report there is now enough MSW information to estimate global amounts and trends. The report also makes projections on MSW generation and composition for 2025 in order for decision makers to prepare plans and budgets for solid waste management in the coming years. Detailed annexes provide available MSW generation, collection, composition, and disposal data by city and by country.
]]>While the recycling's impact on jobs has been the subject of several studies in recent years, Returning to Work is the first report to take into account the vital importance of material quality, throughput quantities, processing dynamics and end-user needs to analyze the net gains in domestic jobs when beverage containers are recovered through recycling.
The project's primary goals were to:
- Measure the impacts on domestic jobs from increased recycling of beverage containers through container deposit-return (CDR) programs compared to curbside recycling or landfill disposal.
- Provide transparent employment data for each level of the recycling or disposal process (i.e., collection, hauling, processing and recovery or landfill disposal).
- Identify aspects of the recycling process that yield substantial jobs growth when beverage container recycling grows.
- Provide a report describing how improved diversion boosts U.S. jobs.
- Create a simple model that estimates, on a state-by-state basis, jobs growth from the increased recovery and recycling of beverage containers.
The research identified jobs increases and jobs decreases for three recycling options: container deposit-return (CDR); single-family curbside collection (automated as well as manual); and enhanced curbside (curbside programs augmented by additional programs targeting away-from-home containers as well as households without access to curbside collection).
The project team gathered data and information from existing reports and articles, interviews with companies in the supply chain of beverage container manufacturing, and interviews with companies handling beverage container discards for recycling or disposal. This information yielded estimates for full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs associated with beverage containers recycled as well as those lost to disposal. Jobs estimates were normalized on the basis of FTEs per 1,000 tons of PET, glass or aluminum containers handled.
The project team then used these estimates to create a user-friendly, Excel-based calculating tool called MIRJCalc, which stands for "Measuring the Impacts from Recycling on Jobs Calculator."...
]]>From the abstract:
Work-related injuries and illnesses are multi-factorial and remain major problems of public health magnitude requiring the attention of all stakeholders in the solid waste industry. The objective of this article was to describe the patterns of occupational injury and illness (OII) reporting incidence among workers in a major private U. S. solid waste management company. A five-year (2003-2007) retrospective review of the corporate Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) logs 300/300A/301 was conducted and employee OII reports (n = 1895) were analyzed from 37 establishments across 11 different states. The OII reporting rates were compared to industry average.
What factors determine job satisfaction for waste industry drivers, and what leads them to quit?
In the context of a battered global economy, job satisfaction has been a major casualty. A recent report by The Conference Board revealed that job satisfaction generally is the lowest that it has been in decades. Another study by Dice Salary showed that nearly half of the workers claim that their employers do nothing to motivate them. Just as many employees think their boss is a jerk, and Career Vision found that about 65 percent are searching for new jobs. There are more disheartening statistics, but these should be enough to get an enlightened manager's attention.
Actually, job satisfaction reports signaled a lot of room for improvement long before the economy sank. Unfortunately, some employers made matters worse by using the Great Recession to squeeze their labor costs for short-term gains, which could haunt them later. The problem was then exacerbated when the pressured workforce heard nightly news reports of climbing corporate profits and soaring top-level executive compensation.
]]>Austin, Texas' PAYT program has dramatically increased the city's diversion rate and reduced worker injuries.
]]>April 4, 2008, marks forty years since the tumultuous battle for union rights in Memphis, in which an assassin took the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Coretta Scott King summed up her husband's work in 1968 by saying, "He gave his life for the poor of the world, the garbage workers of Memphis and the peasants of Vietnam." To honor and remember the importance of King and the Memphis strike, we reprint excerpts from Rev. James Lawson's speech to the joint LAWCHA-Southwest Labor Studies Association conference held at the University of California-Santa Barbara.
]]>How to develop a landfill gas-to-energy project.
With the growing emphasis on finding renewable sources of energy and decreasing the country's dependence on foreign sources of energy, interest in landfill gas-to-energy (LFGE) projects is at an all-time high.
The first LFGE facility opened in 1977. During the past couple of decades, most LFGE projects have had to rely on alternative fuel tax credits or some other form of economic support beyond energy sale revenues to succeed. Today, there are the federal Section 45 tax credits and Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs), as well as state renewable portfolio standards (RPS), which increase the demand for and price of renewable energy, and programs that reward the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. All of these programs can enhance the value of landfill gas and its potential energy products.
]]>The economic recovery plan signed by President Obama will create quality, sustainable jobs to help protect our country's public health and our environment. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 specifically includes $7.22 billion for projects and programs administered by EPA. These programs will protect and promote both "green" jobs and a healthier environment. As part of the plan, the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund projects have been funded $4 billion for assistance to help communities with water quality and wastewater infrastructure needs and $2 billion for drinking water infrastructure needs. A portion of the funding is targeted towards green infrastructure, water and energy efficiency, and environmentally innovative projects. The Agency is developing grant guidance to assist states in managing the Recovery Act funding.Announcements of grants will be posted on the Web to ensure transparency. The state-by-state distributions for clean water and drinking water state revolving funds are also available on the Web.
Find out how the integrity of the nation's drinking water and wastewater infrastructure is at risk.
]]>Liquid Assets is a public media and outreach initiative that seeks to inform the nation about the critical role that our water infrastructure plays in protecting public health and promoting economic prosperity.
Combining a ninety-minute documentary with a community toolkit for facilitating local involvement, Liquid Assets explores the history, engineering, and political and economic challenges of our water infrastructure, and engages communities in local discussion about public water and wastewater issues.
See also:
• Press release
• Trailer
From the press release:
Drawing the connections between people's health and the environments in which we live, this groundbreaking book empowers health promoters, development workers, educators, activists, community leaders and ordinary people to take charge of their communities' health.
...
Years in the making, this comprehensive guide has twenty-three chapters which break down the broad overview of environmental issues and concerns into specific examples of how they affect peoples' health, and how communities have organized to improve their environment and thus their own lives. These chapters include: Promoting Environmental Health; Environmental Rights and Justice; Protecting Community Water; Building Toilets; Mining and Health; Solid Waste: Turning a Health Risk into a Resource; Preventing and Reducing Harm from Toxics; Sustainable Farming; Restoring Land and Planting Trees, The False Promise of Genetically-Engineered Foods; and Clean Energy.
Eighty-two specific stories from communities around the world enliven the chapters, showing the environmental challenges faced, and what people and grassroots organizations have done to empower themselves and transform their communities. The book also includes 22 activities and 40 easy-to-build "how-to" projects.
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