The Case of the Pinewood Landfill: The Politics of Risk, Rationality, and the Disposal of Hazardous Waste

Abstract

Local landfills in communities across the US are the battlegrounds in the conflict between our desire to consume goods at an extraordinary rate and our inability to deal with waste that is a by-product of this consumption. Despite efforts to reduce the amount of wastes generated through source reduction, in 2003, US residences, businesses, and institutions produced more than 236 million tons of municipal solid waste (trash and garbage), approximately 4.5 pounds of waste per person per day (EPA, 2003a). Also in 2003, 16,694 generators of regulated hazardous waste accounted for more than 30 million tons of hazardous wastes, more than half a pound of hazardous wastes per person per day (EPA, 2003b).

Citation

Martyniak, N.D., Hallman, W.K. and Wandersman, A.H. (2007), "The Case of the Pinewood Landfill: The Politics of Risk, Rationality, and the Disposal of Hazardous Waste", Edelstein, M.R., Tysiachniouk, M. and Smirnova, L.V. (Ed.) Cultures of Contamination (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 73-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0196-1152(06)14004-1