I. Title of the Best Practice

II. Overview of the Best Practice

A. General Description
Begun in January 1994, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWi$e program has worked with American businesses; Federal, state, local, and tribal governments; and other institutions to reduce municipal solid waste. Presently, more than 900 organizations are WasteWi$e partners. Through the WasteWi$e program, partners voluntarily set goals in three areas: waste prevention, recycling, and buying/manufacturing recycled products. Partners track their progress during a 3-year period and report annually on their accomplishments.

Waste reduction activities reduce greenhouse gas emissions in several ways, including energy savings, increased carbon sequestration, and avoided methane emissions. EPA estimates that in 1998, the combined waste reduction results of WasteWi$e partners prevented emissions equal to 4.5 MMTCE - equivalent to the average annual emissions from electric power consumption of roughly 2.7 million households.

B. Special Characteristics of the Best Practice
The WasteWi$e program helps participating organizations discover waste reduction opportunities and set waste reduction goals. Partners contact the program to receive personalized technical assistance and have access to an extensive library containing information on municipal solid waste reduction practices nationwide. In addition, the program maintains a website and a list server to support its partners. EPA also publicly recognizes individual organizations and program successes through its publications, satellite forums, trade show exhibits, regional and national events, and an annual awards program.

WasteWi$e partners are located all across the United States and represent more than 50 business, civic, and industry sectors, ranging from Fortune 1000 companies to small local governments. In recent years, WasteWi$e membership has grown from 361 partners in 1994 to its current membership of more than 900 partners. Most recently, WasteWi$e has expanded to include government partners. Reported waste reduction achievements of WasteWi$e partners totaled 7.8 million tons of solid waste in 1998. Avoided disposal cost savings has grown from US$38 million in 1994 to US$284 million in 1998.

C. Reasons for Inclusion as a Best Practice
WasteWi$e recognizes Partners of the Year and Program Champions at a national awards ceremony held each year. Some examples of exemplary domestic waste reduction achievements that will be honored in the awards ceremony in 1999 include:

As Partner of the Year, Eastman Kodak reused over 4,200 tons of coated paper liners saving US$250,000. Kodak also conserved 1,550 tons of plastic and printed circuit boards. These efforts and others resulted in 23,000 tons of waste prevention, 47,900 tons of recycling collection, 10,650 tons of recycled-content purchases, and 20,500 tons of manufacturing with recycled-content products. These waste reductions yield estimated GHG reductions of 40,462 MMTCE and a total cost savings of US$3,000,000.

Partner of the Year Herman Miller, a Zeeland, Michigan, furniture manufacturer, reduced the volume of packaging materials for finished goods by switching to returnable packaging and changing packaging design. This activity combined with their other WasteWi$e commitments resulted in the reduction of 725 tons of solid waste, recycling of 10,273 tons of material and utilization of 37,423 tons of recycled-content goods. These waste reductions yield estimated GHG reductions of 6,772 MMTCE and a total cost savings of US$1,000,000.

The U.S. Postal Service Northeast Area's 74,135 employees in 3,114 post offices throughout the New England states and upstate New York continued to demonstrate their strong commitment to reducing the generation of undeliverable standard mail throughout 1998. The Northeast Area's Postal Service reduced 1,087 tons of bulk mail and saved US$76,000 by promoting a national change of address program to major mailers. They also increased their recycling collection efforts by 44,175 tons.
These waste reductions yield estimated GHG reductions of 41,674 MMTCE.

In addition to WasteWi$e, EPA has several additional program elements (collectively referred to as the Climate & Waste program) including a Pay-As-You-Throw program, an innovative waste reduction grant program and an outreach, research and education program.

Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) is a national program to encourage residential waste reduction. In communities with PAYT, residents are charged for the collection of municipal solid waste (MSW) based on the amount they throw away. This pricing approach causes residents to consider the amount of waste they generate; thereby creating a direct financial incentive to recycle more and generate less waste.

EPA's PAYT team distributes information, provides training, and offers technical assistance to waste managers and to local planners across the U.S. Through these and other efforts, EPA estimates that the number of communities using PAYT in the U.S. has risen to over 4,000 (approximately 35 million residents).

The EPA Climate and Waste Program is currently funding more than 30 solid waste climate change demonstration projects. EPA headquarters staff work with regional offices to award grant funding to state and local governments and non-governmental organizations on a competitive basis. These demonstration projects provide a broad portfolio of locally based projects that reduce GHG emissions and educate different constituencies on the link between climate change and waste.

EPA implements a research, outreach and education program on the linkage between climate change and waste management. EPA researched and published peer reviewed GHG emission factors that can be used to calculate the climate change impact of solid waste management. In addition, EPA develops educational materials, a comprehensive website, conference papers, and presentations to state, local, international, and industry stakeholders.

National Results & Lessons Learned: The WasteWi$e program and related climate and waste program activities have accumulated several years of experience, and have learned many lessons on how to encourage participation by public and private sector waste managers. Waste management practices can impact greenhouse gas emissions by affecting energy consumption, methane generation, carbon sequestration, and non-energy-related manufacturing emissions. By applying material-specific emission factors to the tonnage results from national program implementation efforts (i.e., WasteWi$e, PAYT, and Demonstration projects), national program results can be calculated. In 1998, our national program results were estimated at 4.9 MMTCE in greenhouse gas savings.

Much of the research and program implementation experience is transferable to other nations interested in pursuing and measuring voluntary emission reduction efforts. Accordingly, as part of its dedicated technical assistance efforts, EPA is sharing the benefits of the U.S. experience with other countries designing programs to encourage greenhouse gas emission reductions through waste management activities.

III. Categorizing the Best Practice

1. Classification(s) (Indicate main classification(s) only.)
( ) Regulatory Approach (Policy approaches-- regulations, incentives, etc.)
( X ) Practical Action (Action undertaken independently by a social actor)
( X ) Social Network Mechanism (Cooperative structure)

2. Social Actor(s) Involved (Indicate main social actor(s) only.)
( X ) Citizens
( X ) Central government
( X ) Local government
( X ) Business

3. Sector(s) (Indicate main sector(s) only.)
( ) Energy
( X ) Household
( ) Transportation
( X ) Industrial Enterprises
( X ) Other (Non-Industrial) Business
( ) Agriculture/ Land Use/ Forestry
( X ) Other (Please specify.) [States and local governments, institutions]

4. Target Greenhouse Gas(es)
( X ) CO2
( X ) CH4
( X ) N2O
( ) HFC
( ) PFC
( X ) SF6
( X ) Other (Please specify.) Carbon storage.

IV. List of References

Climate Change and Waste:
http://www.epa.gov/mswclimate

WasteWi$e:
http://www.epa.gov/wastewise

Pay-As-You-Throw:
http://www.epa.gov/payt

General Municipal Solid Waste Information:
http://www.epa.gov/msw

V. Please indicate a person to contact for more information about this Best Practice.

Contact Person:	Eugene Lee
Title:	Program Coordinator
Organization:	U.S, Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste
Email:	lee.eugene@epa.gov
Tel:	703-308-7270
Fax:	703-308-8686
Address:	401 M Street SW (5306W), Washington, DC 20460 USA