ement.
The U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) suggests that materials management has two aspects. First, the manufacturing of products should be coordinated with the needs of different management methods (such as designing products for recyclability). Second, MSW management should be approached on a material-by-material basis, in which discarded materials (including discarded products, yard waste) are diverted to the most appropriate management method based on their physical and chemical characteristics.
The materials management approach builds on materials use concepts that have been discussed for many years. In fact, many communities practiced a form of materials management prior to the 1960s, when they routinely separated discarded materials for management. Only in recent decades have most communities collected mixed MSW, a trend that was encouraged, for example, by the advent of collection trucks that compact MSW.
In deciding what type of waste management system to implement, local decision makers need to consider recycling and composting first, followed by incineration and landfilling, recognizing that all of these management methods may be viable and complementary in a given situation. Recycling should be given the top priority given its materials conservation benefits compared with incineration and landfilling; and its energy savings, at least for some materials, such as aluminum, compared with manufacturing using virgin materials. Further, assuming that adequate regulations exist for both primary and secondary manufacturing facilities, recycling may produce fewer pollutants when the entire MSW system is considered. Incineration of combustible wastes is given preference over landfilling because it destroys pathogens and organic materials, decreases the volume of waste destined for landfills, and often can recover energy economically.
At the local level, communities should use the framework discussed...