Management of organic waste recycling program 48950% in the year 2000 (Grogan 1993). Table 10.2 lists water quality standards set
by U.S. EPA, WHO and Japan, which together with Table 2.27 and 2.28, can be
used as guidelines for setting waste recycling objectives. Table 10.3 gives some
examples of measure that could be used to encourage resource recovery. Table
10.4 shows some measures employed in European Community countries for
promoting reclamation. Solid waste legislations including waste recycling goals
in some states of the U.S. A. are presented in Table 10.5.
10.4.2 Legislation in developing countries
One of the most difficult problems facing governments of developing countries
is how to set up appropriate legislation on environmental quality control.
Examples of such legislation include water quality standards, treated effluent
standards for industrial and domestic wastes, ambient air quality standards,
waste reuse and recycling regulation. Because setting of this legislation
influences the cost of development projects (both capital and operation and
maintenance costs), development of appropriate legislation requires knowledge
of the receiving environment, available technology, and affordability.
UNEP (1991) reported that deaths due to infectious and parasitic diseases are
six times more frequent in developing countries than in developed countries.
One possible cause of the diseases is the severe degradation of water quality,
which is due to less stringent water quality standards and ineffective
implementation. Experiences in implementing the water quality standards in
Japan reveal that actual effectiveness of a water pollution control system
depends not on values of the regulated parameters, but on the supporting
measure to implement the system itself.
In general, developed countries have rich experiences in waste recycling
legislation, the most cited example being the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act (RCRA) of the U.S.A. On the contrary, most of the developing
countries do not have any laws concerning waste recycling. Recently, however,
waste recycling has been included in the national policies of some developing
countries, either in the promotion stage and or in the drafting of the legislation.
Therefore, investigation and evaluation of legislative instruments used in the
developed countries should be made prior to formulating the legislation.
Porteous (1977) proposed the following fiscal/regulatory measures, which
may be used, either singly or more likely jointly, for recycling programs:
- resource depletion levy, which is a negative incentive applied to the
producers to prevent the rapid run-down of virgin materials - virgin material tax, e.g. an import levy on groundwood pulp to
encourage the use of a higher recycled paper content in newsprint.