🚀 go-pugleaf

The Reason Foundation has just put out the first two studies of a series 
on Recycling and Deregulation.  The executive summaries of both papers 
have been posted in two different messages.  Here's the preface to the 
series.  If you're interested, call the Reason Foundation at 310-391-2245 
to find out how to get these two papers.

Reason Foundation

RECYCLING AND DEREGULATION: OPPORTUNITIES FOR MARKET DEVELOPMENT

Part 1.  The FDA vs. Recycling: Has Food Packaging Law Gone Too Far?
Part 2.  Recycling Hazardous Waste: How RCRA has Recyclers Running 
         Around in CERCLAs
(more parts to come)

by Alexander Volokh

PREFACE

Spurred on in the late 1980s by fears of an impending "landfill crisis," 
state legislators found a ready remedy in recycling laws.  Prompted by 
these new state laws, local governments put in place over 7,000 curbside 
recycling programs that began collecting tons of bottles, cans, jars, 
newspapers, and whatnot.  In short order, the legislative refrain moved 
from "Recycle now" to "We need markets."  Legislators moved to calibrate 
recycling supply and demand with a host of proposed regulations -- 
recycled content mandates, manufacturer "take-back" requirements, 
government procurement preferences, and various subsidies.  Whatever the 
reason, deregulation as a way to expand recycling markets was virtually 
ignored.

This is unfortunate.  Shorn of all its ideological trappings, recycling 
is essentially a process of innovation.  Like electricity, cars, and 
computers, new recycling technologies must overcome a lot of 
institutionalized barriers to change.  Many obvious regulatory barriers 
have been removed, but many still remain.  Sometimes, these barriers are 
subtly hidden, disguised as unnecessary procurement standards or 
superfluous safety regulations.  Sometimes, they're unintended side 
effects of unrelated legislation.   But regulatory barriers do exist, and 
their elimination or modification ought to be the starting place for 
trying to enhance recycling markets.

It's time for a change of paradigm.  For years, environmental policy has 
been run on a philosophy of "environment good, industry bad."  But this 
philosophy can't adequately deal with the reality of recycling -- which 
blends environment with industry.

This policy series, "Recycling and Deregulation: Opportunities for Market 
Development," will cover the following areas:

- The use of recycled materials in food packaging, and why FDA 
  regulations and other laws, originally enacted to protect the public 
  health, can inhibit recycling;

- The recycling of hazardous wastes, and why some hazardous waste 
  regulations, instead of protecting the environment, discourage the safe 
  reuse of hazardous products, like lead batteries and used oil;

- The transport of solid waste, and developments to watch out for that 
  could limit the supply of recyclables by discouraging their
  transportation; 

- The scrap tire management problem, and how some state efforts to 
  prevent tires piling up in garbage dumps are counterproductive;

- Recycled building materials, and how building codes unnecessarily 
  prohibit their use;

- How industry standards groups, which governments rely on in their 
  procurement practices, can discourage the use of recycled materials in
  products like plastic lumber and drainage pipes; and,

- How government procurement agencies and miscellaneous other government 
  bureaus, through superfluous regulation, stifle the development of 
  innovative recycling technologies.

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