Planning for Resource Recovery: Lessons from the California Experience

W. David Conn, University of California - Los Angeles

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Publisher website: http://www.informaworld.com
Article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01944367808976893

NOTE: At the time of publication, the author W. David Conn was affiliated with the University of California - Los Angeles. Currently, April 2008, he is Vice Provost of Academic Programs & Undergraduate Education and Professor of City & Regional Planning at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo.

Abstract

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, which emphasizes resource recovery as a goal, provides for states or regional authorities to prepare comprehensive solid waste management plans. A review of the experience in California, where solid waste planning has been required since 1972, shows that communities have generally hesitated to include resource recover in their plans; this seems to be due largely to technological uncertainties, to the existence of economic and institutional biases against recovery, and to the lack of financial assistance for planning and implementation. Some of these obstacles may be overcome, at least in part, by provisions in the new federal act.