Enhancing U.S. hazardous waste accounting through economic modeling

Amid changing attitudes about the environment and emerging sustainability concerns in the late 1960s and 1970s, countries around the world began regulating multiple aspects of solid and hazardous wastes. Initial regulations and those occurring since all share the broader goal of curbing waste generation, especially that of hazardous wastes; but with few signs of progress. Using an input-output accounting framework that focuses on the domestic economy, data on the economy and hazardous waste generation are combined to provide a more complete picture of hazardous waste generation in the United States. The framework developed in this paper can be used to inform decisionmakers of the current state of the “hazardous waste economy” and can also be extended to account for other types of environmental factors.

► Describes U.S. hazardous waste economy with data on hazardous waste and the economy. ► Shows how production and consumption are each accountable for hazardous waste. ► Identifies direct and total accountability for US hazardous waste generation. ► U.S. should consider information from both production and consumption accounting techniques.