 
BACKGROUND
In the mid 1970s and 1980s, the Institute provided technical assistance to dozens of community groups. This included drafting reports on the status of incineration and recycling, offering workshops for community groups, and delivering testimony before legislative bodies. The battle against large-scale incinerators was undertaken in part because burning is an expensive and inefficient means of waste disposal and in part because oversized incinerators demand such high quantities of materials that they starve recyclers.
During the 1980s, the Institute also worked with small and large businesses that were developing products that advanced waste reduction, recycling, and scrap-based manufacturing. These services included developing business plans, identifying financing, and linking businesses to local development officials.
In 1985 ILSR began offering regular seminars on solid waste management and economic development. Over 2,000 businesses and community organization and government representatives have attended these seminars to learn about available products, business expansion plans and local and state policies that promote scrap-based economic development. Seminars have been held in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington.
Since 1989 the Institute has targeted specific cities and worked on an extended basis to make waste management an integral element in an economic development strategy. In these communities our efforts include:
- designing bidding procedures that encourage local ownership of material processing facilities;
- creating or expanding community-based recycling operations;
- developing scrap-based manufacturing joint ventures between business and community development corporations;
- establishing industrial parks for the exclusive or preferred use of scrap-based manufacturers; and
- helping communities divert 50 percent and more of their municipal waste stream.
Since 1990 our efforts have helped to establish more than 15 businesses with about 250 employees and attract about $20 million in new investment to low-income and working class communities.
FREE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE SERVICES AVAILABLE TO CITIZEN AND ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
The Waste to Wealth program of ILSR is available to assist citizens fighting garbage incineration (and other waste to energy) projects. Here is what we suggest. ILSR can share information, suggest possible strategies, suggest technical people who may help, suggest sources of funding to support local activism in this field.
If you're interested, please contact Neil Seldman to set up a conference call to discuss the situation with your local organization and activists.
The following would be helpful background information for this conference call:
- type and size of plant proposed in your community?
- current status of proposal?
- is this the first time that an incinerator (or waste to energy plant) has been proposed?
- how much capacity does the local landfill(s) have?
- who owns them?
- what agency collects garbage from households (city crews, franchise hauler, open hauling)?
- what recycling activities are currently in operation?
OTHER TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE SERVICES
Deconstruction
ILSR now provides classroom and on-site deconstruction training services.
Business Development
Business plans, feasibility studies, start-up technical assistance; community joint ventures.
Research
Identify and evaluate model practices, technologies, and policies
Site Assessments
Evaluation of the flow of discarded materials and the potential to sustain local businesses that can utilize these materials
Business Recruitment and Job Creation
Recruiting green businesses; initiation of negotiations among entrepreneurs, selected companies, financial sources, and local government; development of joint-ventures; marketing and investment strategies
Brownfield Redevelopment
Plans to redevelop contaminated sites such as brownfields and military bases with "green" industries
Cutting the Waste Stream in Half - Green Office and Green Community Programs
Planning cost-effective waste reduction programs that cut the waste stream by 50% or more
Policy Shaping
Recommendations for implementing revised or new policies to convert waste to wealth
Spreading the Word
Production and dissemination of fact sheets and other publications; coordination or participation in workshops and conferences; development of media campaigns; training
and More
Contact us to see if we can help you
SELECTED PROJECTS
Waste Reduction Record-Setters
Under a U.S.
EPA grant, ILSR documented record-setting waste reduction programs.
Work entailed surveys, media publicity, site visits, interviews, data
collection, collection and processing system evaluation, cost analysis,
measuring waste reduction and recycling, and information dissemination.
Produced Cutting the Waste Stream in Half: Community Record-Setters
Show How and a series of fact sheet packets on strategies for record-setting
waste reduction...for more information.
Building Deconstruction
ILSR was the
general contractor for the Hartford (CT) Housing Authority’s demonstration
project to deconstruct six public housing units. Residents were trained
for high wage/benefits jobs and ownership of a new deconstruction company.
As a result of this project, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development now funds deconstruction efforts. ILSR has identified investment
capital for other deconstruction and remanufacturing enterprises owned
and operated by community-based groups, including a small lumber mill
and a building materials reuse depot...for
more information
Solid Waste Management Planning
ILSR prepared detailed model plans for maximizing recycling and economic development, eliminating incineration and minimizing landfill disposal for Washington, DC; Philadelphia, PA; King County, WA; and Camden and Atlantic Counties, NJ. Our planning assistance helped avoid incineration and initiate recycling in Chattanooga, Paterson (NJ), Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cleveland, Atlanta, Austin, and Sarasota County (FL).
OTHER
PAST PROJECTS
For more information, contact:
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Self-Reliance, Inc.
2001 S Street NW Suite 570
Washington, DC 20009
phone 202-898-1610 fax 202-898-1612
E-mail: wastetowealth@ilsr.org
|
