EXECUTIVE MEMO
The Push to Reduce Waste
educe, reuse, recycle. It's a familiar mantra, but not necessarily a familiar practice among the nation's households and businesses. The recycling movement has enjoyed some success-curbside recycling programs increased from about 1,000 in 1988 to 7,375 in 1995, and some small communities now recover more than 40 percent of their trash through recycling and composting. However, households and businesses are much less engaged in the other activities that comprise the waste management strategy-reducing and reusing waste.
The Environmental Protection Agency office charged with promoting the three Rs-the Municipal and Industrial Waste Division of EPA's Office of Solid Waste-believes the lack of interest is partly because communities are unaware of the benefits. These include cost savings, ownership of the remanufacturing and reuse businesses, and job creation. Also, the office says, communities often don't know how to best implement reuse programs.
Frankly, the Municipal and Industrial Waste Division didn't know either, until last year, when it commissioned the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, to study businesses that reuse materials. One of the model operations the ILSR found is the Defense Distribution Depot in Susquehanna, Pa., which collects used wooden storage pallets, repairs them if possible, and turns them into wood chips when they are beyond repair.
For copies of four booklets on reuse that the ILSR developed in conjunction with the study, contact ILSR at 2425 18th St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.
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