Municipal Solid Waste: Building Stronger Connections to Jobs and the Economy

• Author: Marian Chertow
• Pages: 335-345

Chapter 22

Municipal Solid Waste: Building Stronger

Connections to Jobs and the Economy

Marian Chertow

The most obvious and tangible result of consumption in the United

States is the amount and variety of the trash we generate. Agenda 21,

the action plan resulting from the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environ-

ment and Development, states that “unsustainable patterns of produc-

tion and consumption are increasing the quantities and variety of envi-

ronmentally persistent wastes at unprecedented rates.”1Since 2002,

these patterns have intensified in the United States: larger homes,

more possessions, and increasing levels of construction and demoli-

tion wastes. The question of how to measure this growth is com-

pounded by ongoing confusion over how to count and classify what

is discarded.

This chapter begins with a discussion of standards for progress in

sustainability in waste management. It then examines recent trends in

the management of municipal solid waste (MSW)—everyday trash

from homes and businesses—including its generation, recovery, and

disposal. Better data analysis since 2002 has enabled us to have a

clearer picture of the problems of MSW management. There are wide

variations in recycling and composting levels among states. “Pay-as-

you-throw” programs, in which disposal fees are based on the amount

of waste generated, now reach one-fourth of the country’s population,

and studies indicate they can be successful in reducing residential

waste generation. The chapter concludes with several recommenda-

tions for the next decade, including the need to make greater efforts to

create opportunities for economic development and job creation in

preventing, reusing, recycling, and remanufacturing MSW.

Can Waste Management Be More Sustainable?

To define sustainability for U.S. solid waste management with fu-

ture generations in mind, we must separate total waste genera-

tion—the sum of discards that are reused, recovered, and dis-

posed—from waste disposal alone, which includes landfilling of

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