Garbage In, Garbage Out: Solving the Problems with Long-Distance Trash Transport

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments A theme lying just below the surface of this book is that everything is connected to everything else. In similar fashion, while conducting research for and writing this book, I was dependent on the work and special skills of many professionals. To them I owe my first thanks. Jim McCarthy of the Congressional Research Service has written several methodical reports that are the most reputable source of summary statistics on interstate trash transport. Without Jim’s thorough analyses this book could not have been written. He also o√ered help and advice on numerous occasions. Jim is the model public servant; his expertise is second to none. Bob Burnley, Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality from 2002 to 2006, provided invaluable insights and information, drawing upon his decades of experience with environmental issues in the Commonwealth. Karen Sismour, Director of the Waste Division at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and her sta√, always responded quickly to my repeated requests for information, despite the many demands on their time. Other DEQ sta√ who provided helpful information include Leslie Beckwith, Debra Miller, Tom Modena, and Sanjay Thirunagari. Davis Walsh, legislative assistant to Virginia senator Creigh Deeds, helped untangle the somewhat complicated history of one legislative proposal’s fate. Dan Shean is a shining star in the firmament of my former students. His first independent work as a second-year undergraduate at the University of Virginia was a summer of research on the movement of trash between New York State and Virginia. In this work, as in all of his subsequent coursework for me, Dan evinced a quiet brilliance, discipline , and dedication to environmental policy. He wrote a paper on trash transport in his third year at the University of Virginia School of Law, and I am indebted to him for the ideas and research described in that x Acknowledgments work. This book is inestimably better because of our six years’ worth of interaction as professor and student. Itaru Okuda translated Japanese documents that were unavailable in English and worked patiently with me during the two years he spent as a guestscholarattheUniversityofVirginia.Thatassociationculminatedin ajointpaperontheregionalizationofmunicipalsolidwaste(MSW)management in Japan. It is because of Dr. Okuda that the comparative analysis in this book includes information on Japan; he also supplied photos of Tokyo’s incinerators and neatly arranged recycling bags. Dr. Okuda is one of the most intellectually curious, impeccable researchers I have met, and I count myself lucky to be among his professional colleagues. In Belgium, Rudy Meeus, director of the waste agency in Flanders, and his top aide, Phillipe Van de Velde, took time to educate me in the ways of Flemish MSW management. The Flemish are among the leaders in implementing the European Union’s intertwined principles of precaution, self-su≈ciency, pollution prevention, proximity, and polluter pays; as a result, we have much to learn from them. I am also indebted generally to the Danes. While a Fulbright Professor in Denmark in 2001-2, I came to appreciate the Danes’ determined dedication to waste prevention, which flows from their technical sophistication and long-held devotion to the public good. Representatives of European industry groups, NGOs, and government institutions helped me understand the European Union’s approach to MSW management. Julian Carroll of EuroPen, Jacques Ho√enberg of Waste Denmark, and Nathalie Cliquot of the European Environment Bureau shared their valuable perspectives in personal interviews. Karin Jordon of Eurostat helped clarify the European Union’s waste data. Chris Gist, a GIS specialist in the Scholars’ Lab at the University of Virginia’s Alderman Library, painstakingly assembled the maps of land- fills in Virginia. Shelly Schneider of Franklin Associates provided analytical assistance at several points during my research. Mike Giuranna of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provided timely and useful information. While I am immensely grateful to these individuals for their assistance , I take full responsibility for the contents of this book. All observations and opinions are mine and should not be construed to represent those of any other individual or organization. Acknowledgments xi While this book was in progress, I served as vice-chair of the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board. Between 2006 and 2008 the board confronted some especially controversial, time-consuming issues. I am grateful to my fellow board members for their understanding concerning my publishing deadlines. Board members Hullie Moore and Bruce Buckheit, my like-minded partners in many board-related actions...