“Continuity and Change in Environmental Regulation and Hazardous Waste Management Among the Industrialized Countries”

O’Neill, Kate. (1999) “Continuity and Change in Environmental Regulation and Hazardous Waste Management Among the Industrialized Countries”. In: UNSPECIFIED, Pittsburgh, PA. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This project set out to establish whether or not key procedural difference between national systems of environmental regulation can explain why some countries, industrialized democracies in every case, should-in the absence of coercion-willingly take on the risks of disposing of hazardous wastes which other countries do not want. The waste trade is a highly risky activity, associated strongly with environmental damage, market failures, and issues of equity and social justice, the predominant theme in the literature on the trade so far. The movement of wastes across national frontiers is agency-driven: deliberate decisions are made by waste disposal firms to accept foreign wastes for disposal, and by the government agencies which issue waste importation permits or otherwise allow hazardous wastes to enter the country. At the same time, waste importation, along with many other issues concerning hazardous waste management, is often strongly opposed by a wide range of forces, usually including environmental groups and the weight of public opinion.

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