Innovation is a powerful tool for change. Reducing waste and consumption is something that is accurately measured and can therefore be manipulated. Policies encouraging reduction in these two areas could prove to be valuable in an administration’s effort to become actively involved in moving our society to much more sustainable future.
INNOVATIVE POLICIES TO REDUCE WASTE
Diversion of Waste for the Landfill [1]: This is a UK (United Kingdom) policy that was established in 2007 that aimed at reducing waste that was heading to landfills and to encourage companies to focus on waste disposal plans to reuse or recycle waste first and foremost. The policies impose restrictions on the type and amount of waste that can be disposed of in landfills in England and Wales. This policy ensures that recyclables are going to be recycled and will not have to rot in landfills as waste.
Dallas Green Building Program Ordinance [3]: This program is focused on making the buildings in the city of Dallas, both the already built ones and the ones that are going to be built in the future, more sustainable. It is broken up into two phases. Phase one focuses on three things; energy efficiency, water conservation, and the reduction of the “heat island effect” (which will be done with creating cooler roofs). Phase two is focused on creating a standard, based on phase one, that will be in place to guide developers to create “green buildings” with all future development. This policy is simple in its goal, modify the buildings that are here to be more sustainable and make future buildings sustainable.
INNOVATIVE POLICIES TO REDUCE CONSUMPTION
Fuel Taxes [4]: Not a very popular policy, but according to a Harvard research group, it may be the most effective policy to reduce transportation GHG emissions (Green House Gas emissions are released into the air from combustion engines that use petroleum fuel as its fuel source). Just to demonstrate the necessary cost per gallon that will be needed to reduce GHG emissions enough to produce an adequate consumption reduction in the U.S., the research group proposed an $8/gallon cost to consumers. This just might be the wake-up call many Americans need to become aware of the dangers our overconsumption does to the environment.
Reducing Plastic Bag Consumption Policies [5]: This policy, offered by The Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and for Sustainable Resource Management (ACR+), suggests that regions take action to control light-weight plastic bag usage by enforcing policies that encourage producers to create a more biodegradable bag for consumer use. Imagining the outrage that would ensue if policies banned retailers from providing their customers with the plastic bags, ACR+ came up with this policy to be more practical. Once developed and mass-integrated, the bags may be more expensive to use. The expense could be charged to the consumer to encourage using fewer bags, or even bringing their own bag, to carry their groceries. This sort of policy could be easily enacted and would have immediate results.
These five policies are aimed at measuring and manipulating change in our current structures. Whether those structures are personal or professional, the idea of sustainable development reaches all aspects of life. Not only creating change in the buildings people live in or work in, but changing what they do also. But first there must be a change in the way people think and these policies encourage that sort of change.
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[1] http://www.environmentlaw.org.uk/rte.asp?id=82
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