The politics of contaminated sites management : institutional regime change and actor's mode of participation in the environmental management of the Bonfol Chemical Waste Landfill in Switzerland

By the end of the 1970s, contaminated sites had emerged as one of the most complex and urgent environmental issues affecting industrialized countries. The authors show that small and prosperous Switzerland is no exception to the pervasive problem of sites contamination, the legacy of past practices in waste management having left some 38,000 contaminated sites throughout the country. This book outlines the problem, offering evidence that open and polycentric environmental decision-making that includes civil society actors is valuable. They propose an understanding of environmental management of contaminated sites as a political process in which institutions frame interactions between strategic actors pursuing sometimes conflicting interests. In the opening chapter, the authors describe the influences of politics and the power relationships between actors involved in decision-making in contaminated sites management, which they term a "wicked problem." Chapter Two offers a theoretical framework for understanding institutions and the environmental management of contaminated sites. The next five chapters present a detailed case study on environmental management and contaminated sites in Switzerland, focused on the Bonfol Chemical Landfill. The study and analysis covers the establishment of the landfill under the first generation of environmental regulations, its closure and early remediation efforts, and the gambling on the remediation objectives, methods and funding in the first decade of the 21st Century. The concluding chapter discusses the question of whether the strength of environmental regulations, and the type of interactions between public, private, and civil society actors can explain the environmental choices in contaminated sites management. Drawing lessons from research, the authors debate the value of institutional flexibility for dealing with environmental issues such as contaminated sites.

Legal Aspects which Implement Good Practice Measures in the Management of Construction and Demolition Waste

The construction industry, one of the most important ones in the development of a country, generates unavoidable impacts on the environment. The social demand towards greater respect for the environment is a high and general outcry. Therefore, the construction industry needs to reduce the impact it produces. Proper waste management is not enough; we must take a further step in environmental management, where new measures need to be introduced for the prevention at source, such as good practices to promote recycling. Following the amendment of the legal frame applicable to Construction and Demolition Waste (C&D waste), important developments have been incorporated in European and International laws, aiming to promote the culture of reusing and recycling. This change of mindset, that is progressively taking place in society, is allowing for the consideration of C&D waste no longer as an unusable waste, but as a reusable material. The main objective of the work presented in this paper is to enhance C&D waste management systems through the development of preventive measures during the construction process. These measures concern all the agents intervening in the construction process as only the personal implication of all of them can ensure an efficient management of the C&D waste generated. Finally, a model based on preventive measures achieves organizational cohesion between the different stages of the construction process, as well as promoting the conservation of raw materials through the use and waste minimization. All of these in order to achieve a C&D waste management system, whose primary goal is zero waste generation

Institutional bases for control of nonpoint source pollution under the Clean Water Act, with emphasis on agricultural nonpoint sources /

Mode of access: Internet.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 : a brief look at Public Law 94-580.

Mode of access: Internet.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 : a summary of public law 94-580.

Mode of access: Internet.

EPA activities under the Resource conservation and recovery act of 1976; Annual report to the President and the Congress.

Mode of access: Internet.

Public hearing on proposed rules for controlling hazardous wastes : Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Sections 3001-3004, Volume III, March 13, 1979, San Francisco, California 94105, transcript.

Hearing sponsored by EPA Office of Solid Waste.

Transcript : Regional Public Meetings on the Resource Conservation and Recovery act of 1976, March 21 and 22, 1977, Chicago, Ill./

Sponsored by Environmental Protection Agency, Region V.

Public hearing on the proposed regulations implementing Sections 3001 to 3004 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act : February 22-23, 1979, Washington, D.C., transcript.

Includes bibliographical references.

First public meeting on the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 : December 16, 1976, Washington, D.C. transcript /

EPA pub. number SW-10P, per NSCEP's publication title list.

Transcript : Regional Public Meetings on the Resource Conservation and Recovery act of 1976, February 17 and 18, 1977, Richmond, Virginia, [proceedings] ... /

Sponsored by Environmental Protection Agency, Region III.

Aerobic treatment of livestock wastes /

"Final report (SW-16rg)--on work performed by Purdue University under solid waste research grant no. EC-00244 and by the University of Illinois under solid waste research grant no. EC-00245."

Transcript : Regional Public Meetings on the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, March 3 and 4, 1977, Denver, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah, [proceedings] ... /

Sponsored by Environmental Protection Agency, Region VIII.

Transcript : Regional Public Meetings on the Resource Conservation and Recovery act of 1976, March 10 and 11, 1977, San Francisco, Calif., proceedings ... /

Sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency, Region IX.

Transcript : Public meeting on the proposed revisions to EPA grant regulations for implementation of Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, June 30, 1977, Washington, D.C. /

Sponsored by Environmental Protection Agency, Region III.