By Elizabeth Treadway

As the country has watched the clock tick away the minutes, moving toward the end of the 20^th century, we’re afforded the opportunity to look back at our accomplishments. Some years ago, I wrote an editorial on the role of the solid waste manager and our profession in the development of a dialog on building sustainable communities. At the time, a world agenda was focused on sustainable development, with international meetings and writings in many publications, along with a great deal of energy devoted to defining "sustainability" and identifying strategies on how to bring the concepts to reality. For our profession, we were in a rush to build new disposal capacity, having the image of the floating barge of garbage fresh in our minds. Reports of migration of waste from the highly populated Northeast to the Midwest were in every trade journal, as communities struggled with the rising cost of solid waste management.

That is only a decade ago or less, and I find it interesting to see that, in just 10 years, the current reports on disposal capacity in our nation indicate the needs of the immediate future have been met. It might not be exactly where needed (especially in the backyards of some rural Americans who are taking on the role of receiver), but rather than a loss of disposal resource, what we have seen is a change in who controls that resource. Private ownership is much more common than it was just 10 years ago, with many small, less populated counties and cities closing facilities and transporting waste through transfer stations and private contractors.

We have seen a consolidation of the private hauling industry, with many more acquisitions of traditional, smaller, family-owned businesses by the top three or four privately held hauling companies. The familiar faces of "Big Blue" and Waste Management have been transformed. Competition is keen, and hopefully the consumer is the one to benefit from it.

So where do we go from here? Is the need for publicly controlled waste management the same as when first formally defined in the late 19^th century: as a sanitation function to prevent serious health impacts from garbage dumped in the streets and gutters of our nation’s cities? In the policy arena, we are struggling at the national level to get reauthorization of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Superfund reforms have slowed to an agonizing crawl. Recycling is maturing into "normal" business for local governments, either by contracting with the private sector or by direct delivery of services. It feels like we are coasting, waiting in anticipation of a new venture or a new technology. Do we need another wandering barge to refocus energy on the issue of solid waste management, or are we maturing into a well-defined and prescriptive program that will carry our nation into the 21^st century in good standing?

I would challenge you to be ever vigilant and not allow complacency to reign. There are many opportunities for change that must be faced, and we need to be sure that the best and the brightest are leading the charge. We are not reducing the volume of waste generated, which is clearly a benefit of a healthy and vibrant economy. If this is a new economic order, with stable and continuing growth, enhancing the well-being of our communities, then we need to take a new look at the principle goals of waste management and redefine what success looks like for this important industry. The buzzwords of "integrated management" of the wastestream have become more of a reality than mere jargon. However, it might be a different concept than that professed a decade ago, when a hierarchy of reduce, reuse, recycle, compost, incinerate, and landfill was proclaimed as the management strategy of choice, to be carried out in a preferred order. We have learned a great deal about what is needed to make it all work, and most important is balance. The economics of waste management are an essential element, and as we have learned to balance programs to optimize efficiency and effectiveness, we must continue to seek ways to accomplish our goals.

It is exciting to consider what the generations to come will create to achieve the world’s environmental goals. We only have to consider what we accomplished in this century to appreciate what is to come. From horse-drawn wagons that created their own set of problems to highly sophisticated packers, transfer trailers, and automated collection systems, we have transformed the industry from one that has been back-breaking work with little to be proud of to one in which individuals can establish a career, earn a reasonable wage, and retire without disability. We have advanced from dumping waste into our oceans and marshes to managing it in technically complex landfills and incinerators. But we must continue to challenge our thinking. As world travel becomes interstellar travel, we will change the face of our planet and, with it, change the means of managing our byproduct wastes. It is not "if" but "when," and as we hand the baton to the next generation, we must inspire them to push the envelope, be creative, and think beyond the norm. On the horizon of the 21^st century sits great potential, and we have the talent to open doors for solutions that will enhance our way of life.

Yet we need to be sure that we acknowledge our responsibility to share our knowledge to raise the quality of life for all in this world, not just within this nation. There is a great need to address similar problems that we faced when we moved from the 19^th to the 20^th century. There is a challenge to reach out and partner with our peers throughout the world. Sustainability is a global issue as well as a local one. We have an important role in providing the vision and tools to assist all nations. It is personally rewarding and gives our children greater hope of managing a healthy Earth through the 21^st century. Take on an active role in your professional associations. Become a volunteer for the world. Share your hope, your knowledge, and your creativity for the solid waste managers of tomorrow. It will be a great legacy for each of us.

MSW
January /February 2000