21st Century Policy Project

Future Search Conference Issue: The Role of Stakeholders in Solid Waste/Materials Management

Issue Definition and Scope:

Different stakeholders have different roles in creating an integrated cradle-to-cradle solid waste/materials management system that recognizes and promotes mutual best outcomes. Different stakeholders focus on or impact parts of the waste system, including government, the solid waste industry, businesses, and the general public. As the system evolves, new stakeholders are emerging. Existing stakeholders and emerging ones will need to establish roles that look at the entire system.

Background:

Stakeholders changed significantly with the passage of AB 939. For example, local government, in partnership with the waste industry, has invested in an extensive infrastructure to collect and separate recyclables over the past ten years. Businesses have been created to market these new commodities. Manufacturers have incorporated such waste management considerations as waste prevention and aggressive recycling into their operations to enhance their profitability. As we move into the next century, new stakeholders are emerging with different perspectives, for example, as advocates of sustainability. Manufacturers, product designers and architects, to name a few, are establishing new paradigms that may be as revolutionary as the changes following AB 939.

Issue Questions:

• How can businesses become more committed to producer responsibility?
• Should state and local government be visible leaders for source reduction buy recycled and recycling?
• How can adequate funding for local governments’ waste management programs be ensured?
• Should changes in tax structure, subsidies, and fees be examined?
• How do we change the perceptions that landfills are the ‘end’ of the cycle?
• How can industries that use recycled materials be encouraged to locate or expand in California?
• Should the Board work more collaboratively than prescriptively with business and industry?
• How can corporate environmental awareness be strengthened in a global economy?
• What is the Board’s role in promoting the concept of sustainability?
• What will be the role of the waste industry in a new era of consolidation?
• What can be done to increase public support of diversion and buying recycled? Is convenience the main secret to success?
• What impacts would a true "cradle-to-cradle" system have on the existing solid waste industry and the infrastructure built up to process the waste stream?
• What is the role of newly emerging stakeholders in the waste/materials management effort?

Last updated: October 18, 2007