History of Waste Management and Site Assessment

When people think of waste, they generally conjure images of large manufacturing and chemical companies spewing out thick, black smoke and producing dangerous solid chemicals. While industry is the largest producer of hazardous waste, churning out nearly 400 million tons per year, the average citizen also produced a fair share of refuse. The typical U.S. family produces an astounding 6,500 pounds of garbage each year, and a portion of this is considered hazardous waste. Not only do we discard such common solid waste as paper, plastics, and biodegradable foodstuff, but also dangerous materials, including paints, chemicals, and medicines. The amount of waste we produce has increased rapidly during the last 30 years-from 2.7 pounds of trash per person to almost 4 pounds daily.

While industrial output and consumption have risen steadily during the past several decades, the nation's ability to dispose of the byproducts of economic growth has fallen dramatically. Of the 18,000 landfills operating in 1976, more than one-half had closed by 1990; at the present rate only 1,800 will be in operation by the year 2010. Garbage from the City of New York is being shipped as far as Illinois, while hazardous waste produced in North Carolina is being shipped to poor South American nations where safe disposal methods are likely to be ignored. The waste crisis is also manifest in the careless and often illegal dumping of waste across the nation.

Up until 1976, there were only loose guidelines on the disposal of hazardous waste. The oozing of chemicals into the homes of Love Canal, New York, awakened the nation to the reckless discarding of very dangerous chemicals and compounds. Since 1980, the EPA has tracked potential hazardous waste sites to include on its Super fund priority list, and to date more than 50,000 locations are under consideration. The country is finally becoming aware of the fact that our industrial society has caused serious damage to the environment. Those employed in waste management and environmental assessment are now tackling these and many other pressing problems.



Projected Trends And Employment Growth

Both the solid and hazardous waste management fields are expected to experience higher than average employment growth well into the next decade. According to the Environmental Careers Organization, employment growth in solid waste management is expected to average 13 percent per year, while growth in hazardous waste management will be around 18 percent for the next several years. Likewise, the demand for environmental engineers is expected to grow faster than average. Much of the growth in this field is tied to the reduction of solid waste, the cleanup of hazardous waste sites, and the large number of over site regulations recently mandated by federal, state and local governments.

Among the many concerns and issues that affect employment trends in the waste management and environmental fields, the most pressing are:

• The Solid Waste Disposal Crisis. Currently there is a shortage of industrial and municipal landfills and incinerators. Of the 18,000 facilities operating in 1976, only about 6,000 are still open today. Finding locations for landfills and incinerators is a long and difficult process due to stringent environmental regulation and the intensity of public opposition for most site proposals.
  
  
• Landfill Technology and Operations. New technologies are required to ensure that the solid waste that is buried or burned does not result in additional pollution. For example, new methods to prevent the leaching of landfill contaminates into groundwater supplies and the prevention of toxic ash emissions from waste incinerator plants need to be developed and applied.
  
  
• Hazardous Waste Cleanup. The number of hazardous wastes sites has in-creased dramatically during the past few years. Currently 50,000 sites are being considered for the EPA Super fund list. The cleanup of just a small number of these sites will require the work of tens of thousands of environmental scientists and technicians throughout the next several decades.
  
  
• Military Base Closures. The Base Realignment and Closure Act will result in tens of thousands of acres available for public and private use. The federal government prevents transferring any part of a military base to the public until the land has been certified environmentally clean by at least one branch of the military and all appropriate federal, state, and local environmental regulatory agencies. In 1993, President Clinton announced that $2.2 billion would be committed to environmental cleanup and conversion during the next five years. The cleanup of military bases will provide high-paying jobs for many hazardous waste professionals and technicians.
  

Sources Of Further Information

• The New Complete Guide to Environmental Careers (1993).
  

By the Environmental Careers Organization and published by Island Press. Included are separate chapters on solid waste and hazardous waste management. This is an excellent companion to this book because it concentrates on the effects of federal regulations on the job market, gives tips to getting started in a career, and gives profiles and case studies of companies and employees.

• Air and Waste Management Association P.O. Box 2861 Pittsburgh, PA 15230
  
  
• National Environmental Training Association 8687 Via de Ventura Suite 214 Scottsdale, AZ 85285
  
  
• National Solid Waste Management Association 1730 Rhode Island Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20036