also good sources of raw materials. recovery and recycling of wastes can help to reduce the use of virgin materials for producing new goods. recycling construction & demolition waste can also save the space in landfills and large amounts of materials like metals, glass, plastics, and cardboards can be recovered. composting: composting is a way to return nutrients back into the environment by allowing microorganisms to turn the waste into manure. applying this manure to agricultural land can improve the fertility of the soil providing it essential nutrients. it is estimated that 27.8% of the municipal solid waste generated in united states in 2009 was organic waste consisting of yard trimmings and food waste that is compostable. the agricultural and animal waste generated can also be composted and used as manure. for example, it is estimated that a dairy cow produces approximately 40 pounds of waste (dung, urine) per day which can be dried and used as manure. this manure can also be used in digesters to produce biogas (methane gas) or electricity, and other biofuels like ethanol. costs and problems associated with waste some of the main issues associated with waste are open dumping, odor, particulate matter emissions, leachate seepage from landfills, greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions that lead to air pollution, surface and groundwater pollution, food chain contamination, land area depletion, human health impacts, environmental degradation, and negative impacts on plant and animal life. rationales for solid waste policy figure 3 - demand curve and deadweight loss (dwl), based on portney and stavins (2000), page 269 all levels of government - federal, state, and local - are involved in regulating solid waste in united states. proper waste management extends from solid waste collection, segregation, transportation, storing, treatment and disposal to education, labeling, trading, and interstate & intercontinental movement of waste. portney and stavins (2000) provide the following three rationales for government intervention in private waste markets: economies of scale - the cost of producing goods or services decreases as production increases. with regards to solid waste this principle applies to landfills where the average cost of landfill construction, operation, and maintenance decreases as waste disposed of increases. this propels interstate trade where private parties divert wastes to large regional landfills. public bad - waste creates dissatisfaction to people which reduces social benefits or increases social cost, making it the opposite of a public good. the government, through its policies, makes waste an "excludable" good (or bad) thereby creating opportunities for waste collection firms to charge the household, industrial, and commercial waste generators for proper collection and disposal. negative externalities - production of waste leads to environmental pollution especially when it is illegally disposed of, openly dumped, or burned, resulting in groundwater contamination or air pollution. it has been proven that emissions include high amounts of methane and trace amounts of benzene, hydrogen sulphide, and chorinated hydrocarbons along with other gases. this demand curve and the deadweight loss (dwl) associated with waste disposal (landfilling) is illustrated in figure 3. mechanisms and policy framework the government has a wide variety of different policy tools at its disposal from which it can choose. due to the diverse nature of solid waste, the government employs a number of different policy tools at various levels in order to ensure efficient and safe handling and disposal of the many different types of waste, as well as in order to encourage recycling and source reduction. the following is a sampling of tools the united states government employs with regards to solid waste. deposit refund deposit-refund systems or container deposit legislation, also known as "bottle bills", can be viewed either as a tax on producing waste in the form of beverage containers or as a subsidy for properly recycling these containers. when a retailer buys products from a distributor, it must pay a deposit for each beverage container it purchases. the retailer then includes the cost of the deposit in the item's price, passing it to the consumer. however, the consumer is refunded this money by properly disposing of the used beverage container at a retail or redemption center. the retailer also recoups the deposit from the distributor. this system encourages consumers to properly dispose of the waste they generate by buying beverages in disposable containers. it also creates a privately funded system for the handling of this waste. a deposit-refund bill named national beverage container reuse and recycling act was introduced by the house of representatives in 1994 but never became federal law. bottle bills are currently in place in ten states as well as in guam. delaware repealed its bottle bill in 2010. oregon was the first state to institute a bottle bill in 1971. the most common deposit is five cents, but this varies by state and by the type of container. pay as you throw pay as you throw is a model for pricing the disposal of municipal solid waste by unit of waste rather than by charging a uniform price for pickup and disposal. this acts as a tax on waste - the more waste a household produces, the more it will be charged for its disposal. pay as you throw is administered on the municipal level. the purpose behind this system is to discourage waste generation and to encourage recycling. by charging citizens per unit of waste, municipalities hope to discourage waste generation by causing households to consider the quantity of waste they are producing by making them pay for it. it is estimated that pay as you throw programs have decreased municipal solid waste by about 17% in weight, with a 6% decrease attributed to source reduction efforts and an 8-11% due to waste diversion to recycling and yard programs. in 2006, pay as you throw had been instituted in over 7,000 united states communities. permits under the rcra, the epa issues permits to ensure the safe treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous wastes. in order to receive a permit, the party managing the waste has to meet certain criteria, as specified by the act. permits are used to set a minimum baseline of safety standards that must be met in the handling and disposal of waste in order to control this process and ensure a degree of safety is achieved. this is an example of command and control regulation, by which the government specifies certain standards that parties must meet. technology standards technology standards are another form of command and control regulation by the government. technology standards stipulate certain types or levels of technologies that must be employed to ensure the safe storage or treatment of waste. for example, technology standards have been created for the design of landfills and there are requirements for the design of the liners in order to prevent leechate. performance standards performance standards dictate maximum levels of emissions that may be released in the process of waste management and disposal. these standards are set by the federal government, but can be made more stringent by states. for example, incinerators may not emit over 180 mg of particulate matter per dry standard cubic meter. other emissions from incinerators are also regulated. labeling different labeling standards are required by the federal government and by some states for different types of waste such as hazardous waste and medical waste. labeling ensures that those coming into contact with these types of waste are aware of the nature of the waste. in this way, labeling is also intended to help ensure proper handling and disposal. challenges and goals the epa has set forth challenges and goals with regards to solid waste. the resource conservation challenge aims to: "prevent pollution and promote reuse and recycling; reduce priority and toxic chemicals in products and waste; and conserve energy and materials." it has also issued a challenge to increase recycling to encompass 35% of the country's municipal solid waste. the epa's other three focuses are on recycling electronics, recycling industrial materials, and reducing priority and toxic chemicals. these challenges and goals are supported by voluntary programs and partnerships. partnerships the epa has established a number of partnerships with businesses and organizations, industries, states, local governments, tribes, and other entities to reduce and effectively manage waste. examples of these partnerships are plug-in to ecycling, the schools chemical cleanout campaign, and wastewise. all of these examples aim to meet the goals of the resource conservation challenge. these partnerships are voluntary. entities may enter into these partnerships because of a variety of expected benefits, including costs savings and improved public image. in another example, epa and state and tribal representatives jointly developed a framework for industrial waste management aimed to establish a common set of guidelines. under the federal advisory committee act, epa convened a focus group consisting of industry and public stakeholders to provide assistance throughout the industrial waste management process. information on its wastes website, the epa provides a large amount of information on topics pertaining to waste, such as source reduction and recycling. in this way, the government is working to educate its citizens in order to reduce the amount of waste and ensure its proper disposal in a non coercive manner. this website is also a good source for people looking for instructions on how to properly dispose of items such as compact fluorescent bulbs or electronics. united states legislation history federal solid waste law has gone through four major phases. the solid waste disposal act (swda) of 1965 was the first u.s. federal solid waste management law enacted. it focused on research, demonstrations, and training. in a second phase, the resource recovery act of 1970 emphasized reclaiming energy and materials from solid waste instead of dumping. in a third phase, the federal government started playing more active regulatory role, with the resource conservation and recovery act (rcra) of 1976. rcra instituted the first federal permitting program for hazardous waste and it also made open dumping illegal. rcra focuses only on active and future facilities and does not address abandoned or historical sites which are managed under the comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act (cercla) of 1980 - commonly known as superfund. implementation of rcra was relatively slow and congress reauthorized and strengthened rcra through the hazardous and solid waste amendments (hswa) of 1984. this was the beginning of the fourth phase. the 1984 rcra amendments suggested a policy shift away from land disposal and toward more preventive solutions. rcra has been amended on two occasions since hswa: the federal facility compliance act of 1992 which strengthened enforcement of rcra at federal facilities and the land disposal program flexibility act of 1996 which provided regulatory flexibility for land disposal of certain wastes. solid waste legislation has been constantly strengthened and improved by the introduction of amendments to the major laws mentioned above and other specific laws. the most important amendments are: resource recovery act of 1970 which provides state and local governments with technical and financial help in planning and developing resource recovery and waste disposal systems used oil recycling act of 1980 which defines the terms used oil, recycled oil, lubricating oil, and re-refined oil, and encourages state to use recycled oil solid waste disposal act amendments of 1980 which targets against hazardous waste dumping superfund amendments and reauthorization act (sara) of 1986 which amends cercla of 1980, increases state involvement in the superfund program, and encourages greater citizen participation in decision making medical waste tracking act of 1988 created rcra subtitle j, which expired on march 22, 1991. see medical waste. ocean dumping ban act of 1988 which prohibits all municipal sewage sludge and industrial waste dumping into the ocean rcra cleanup reforms i&ii of 1999 and 2001 which accelerate the cleanup of hazardous waste facilities regulated under rcra used oil management standards of 2003 which defines used oil management standards in a more exact manner statutes and rules designed to improve community access to information about chemical hazards: emergency planning and community right-to-know act (epcra), also known as sara title iii of 1980, which provides for notification of emergency releases of chemicals, and addresses communities' right-to-know about toxic and hazardous chemicals rcra expanded public participation rule of 1996 which encourages communities' involvement in the process of permitting hazardous waste facilities and expands public access to information about such facilities statutes and rules designed to prevent