By Derrick Bellows

As a child I remember when our family got our first black-and-white television set, and it had only one channel. It was a big deal because the TV doubled our information/entertainment opportunities by supplementing the only radio in the house. In college I was party to the shift from slide rules to electronic calculators. And I was amazed at the technology that created the Commodore 64 home computer. We all thought we should get a new car every couple of years, even though there was nothing wrong with the old one, because new was better. Change was comfortable and felt progressive, and manageable. I still have a 20-year-old Commodore 64 in a box in my basement along with a bunch of much newer electronic products, toxic household chemicals, and the remnants of other miscellaneous special-purpose or single-use products (along with the Styrofoam packaging they came in). And, I wonder what to do with all this unwanted stuff. Change is changing. Society is being bombarded with increasing amounts of products and materials that are also more complex and dangerous. And at the end of the life-cycle line society still expects that this stuff will generally be directed toward MSW management systems.

Change has always been part of our industry. Throughout the twentieth century change significantly redefined the solid-waste agenda. Much like water and sewer systems, early solid-waste management focused on sanitation and public health within the context of rapidly growing urbanisation. As society became wealthier and consumption increased, the solid-waste industry responded by providing higher-level removal services to ensure that every home did not become a mini-dump. Finally, late in the post-war boom when we realized that pollution was becoming a significant problem, the environmental movement was born and the solid-waste industry reshaped itself with the technical and scientific tools to address those problems. It was not accidental that at this same time far-sighted solid-waste practitioners formed the Governmental Refuse Collection and Disposal Association—today's SWANA—as a professional association to meet the increasingly complex challenges of solid-waste management.

Why is change management important to us in the solid-waste industry? Waste comes from all parts of society and a change in front-end production and consumption patterns will inevitably have an impact on waste at the back end of the consumption cycle. Like the defensive line on a football team, our industry is the first to get whacked when the play of change starts, and if we don't react well we get knocked on our cans! One of the whacks that put the solid-waste industry a bit off balance in the last few years is the proliferation of e-waste. It was a big hit, but industry (generators, governments, and solid-waste management) is regaining control and implementing effective e-waste management systems. It is notable that SWANA reacted very quickly and appropriately to this issue by investigating the pollution risks of heavy-metals release from materials disposed of in sanitary landfills. The result of that research was recently published and is available through SWANA.

With all of these challenges it is sometimes hard to develop strategies and responses. I have three suggestions for maintaining perspective and addressing change. First, recognize that, like death and taxes, change is here is to stay. We will never become a society of the status quo. And to make matters worse, it appears that the rate of change is increasing. It used to be that a new TV or radio would last for years. There was no VHS, Beta, cassette, CD, DVD, or other advanced technology to complicate life. Now, the electronic device that was new last week will be obsolete next week. That leads to my second observation.

Be flexible, responsive, and innovative in your approach to change. With rapid and sometimes unpredictable change it is essential to be able to "read the tea leaves" and adjust your programs, services, and regulations accordingly. Walk down the aisles of a local supermarket and see how much glass packaging is still used. I predict that before long glass will disappear as a food-packaging material and waste-management headache. Technology is both a causative factor in creating change and an important ally to use in dealing with change. Human intelligence, creativity, and entrepreneurship continually lead to new waste products that are difficult to manage. However, technology has also added to the arsenal of tools to meet the problems. Change management requires being receptive to new technologies and ways of thinking about discard materials that will be different from the way we have always done it. Also, don't just consider the materials themselves. While we primarily deal with real stuff that can be touched and often smelt, it is often the intangible social, economic, and political influences that really cause change to our industry. In the past three years North America has been shocked by terrorism and unexpected diseases. Socially and politically, the focus of waste management is being redirected back to the protection of public health.

Finally, use all the resources available to understand and influence national policy, and to develop local plans and programs. Web sites and publications like MSW Management provide expert information on current and topical issues for the solid-waste industry. Associations like SWANA provide a smorgasbord of training and education, research, networking, and advocacy opportunities to folks involved with solid-waste management. But don't stop there. Read newspapers and public affairs magazines, surf the Net, and get involved in your communities to be part of the changes that inevitably show up in waste management.

Forty-five years ago Vance Packard wrote "The Waste Makers," a social commentary on the systemic wastefulness of American society. I found my copy at a used book sale in the mid-1980s and it still sits on my bookshelf. In 1960 Packard identified a political economy that promoted increasing levels of consumption and a philosophy of waste. Since then our society has started changing from a philosophy of waste to one of product stewardship. However, the core societal driver of increasing consumption is still very functional. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing us now is how to change from a consumption society that establishes value in quantity to a conservation society that establishes value in quality.

Derrick Bellows, P.E., is manager of solid waste for the City of Regina, Canada, and the Canadian representative to the executive committee of SWANA international board.

MSW - November/December 2004