Garbage Laws and Symbolic Policy: Governmental Responses to the Problem of Waste in the United States

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine governmental responses to the environmental problem of waste in the United States. The main thesis of this paper contends that environmental laws, particularly those concerned with addressing the problem of waste, are symbolic exercises because they reaffirm the ideological commitments of the industrial-consumer process, commitments that fail to recognize basic principles of ecology and stir the problem of waste in the first instance. The thesis that garbage laws are mainly symbolic exercises is elaborated in the following manner. First, drawing from the work of other scholars who have invoked the notion of symbolic law, the chief characteristics of the concept are iden tified. Having framed the concept of symbolic law, three ideological com mitments of the industrial-consumer process — belief in human domina tion of nature, creativity as a moral pursuit, and linearity of thought - are described. These ideological commitments contribute directly to the problem of waste through the championing of unadulterated consump tion. Noting some ecological challenges raised by garbage and waste dis posal to these ideological commitments, the next section relates some basic principles of ecology that would serve well as the underpinnings for environmental policy. An examination of the federal government's Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 as well as New York State's Solid Waste Management Act of 1988 confirms, however, that governmental responses to the problem of waste fail to slip free of indus trial-consumer ideological commitments. After assessing the response articulated by these two pieces of legislation, the paper concludes with some observations on symbolic law and environmental problems and with a few suggestions for informing our environmental policy with eco logical principles.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Boorstin, D.J. (1992). The creators New York: Random House.

Bronstein, S. (1987, February 12). Garbage Landfills in Half of the States Approaching Capacity The New York Times , p. 20.

Brower, D. (1970). A time for sarsaparilla In G. De Bell (Ed.), The environmental handbook: Prepared for the first national environmental teach-in (pp. 9-11). New York: Ballantine Books.

Bryner, G.C. (1987). Bureaucratic discretion: Law and policy in federal regulatory agencies New York: Pergamon Press.

Burgess, A. (1962/1986). A clockwork orange New York: W. W. Norton.

Buttel, F.H. (1996). Environmental and resource sociology: Theoretical issues and opportunities for synthesis Rural Sociology , 61(1), 56-76.

Calavita, K. (1993). The contradictions of immigration lawmaking: The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 In W. J. Charnbliss & M. S. Zatz (Eds.), Making law: The state, the law, and structural contradictions (pp. 229-260). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Chambliss, W.J. (1993). On lawmaking In W. J. Chambliss & M. S. Zatz (Eds.), Making law: The state, th law, and structural contradictions (pp. 3-35). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Carson, R. (1962). Silent Spring Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

10.

Commoner, B. (1971). The closing circle: Nature, man, and technology New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

11.

Cormack, M. (1992). Ideology Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

12.

Davis, P. (1991). Reauthorization is new front for the garbage wars Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 49(16), 979- 980.

13.

Davis, P. (1991). Administration backing away from RCRA reauthorization Congressional Quarterly Week Report, 49(38), 2685.

14.

Dunlap, R.E. & Catton, W.R., Jr. (1994). Struggling with human exemptionalism : The rise, decline, and revitalization of environmental sociology The American Sociologist, 25, 5-30.

15.

Dunlap, R.E. & Catton, W.R., Jr. (1979). Environmental sociology Annual Review of Sociology, 5, 243-73.

16.

Eagleton,T. (1991). Ideology: An introduction London: Verso.

17.

Earle, R. (1990). Northeast promotes recycling markets The Journal of State Government, 63 (3), 64-66.

18.

Environmental Protection Agency. (1998, December 8). Municipal solid waste factbook Washington, DC: Author. [On-line], Available: http//www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/factbook/intemet/mswf/ .

19.

Erikson, K.T. (1966). Wayward Puritans: A study in the sociology of deviance New York: John Wiley & Sons.

20.

Ewen, S. (1988). All consuming images: The politics of style in contemporary culture New York: Basic Books.

21.

Fromm, E. (1976). To have or to be? Toronto: Bantam Books.

22.

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life New York: Doubleday.

23.

Gusfield, J.R. (1963). Symbolic crusade: Status politics and the American temperance movement Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

24.

Hays, S.P. (1987). Beauty, health, and permanence: Environmental politics in the United States, 1955-1985 Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press.

25.

Hepworth, J. R. & McNamee, G. (Eds.). (1996). Resist much, obey little : Remembering Ed Abbey. San Francisco, CA : Sierra Club Books.

26.

Hodges, L. (1973). Environmental pollution: A survey emphasizing physical and chemical principles New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

27.

Howard, G.J. (1998). The social career of environmentalism: Earth Day, environmental problems, and images of proper behavior in the information age Unpublished doctoral dissertation: State University of New York, Albany.

28.

Landy, M. ; Roberts, M. ; & Thomas, S. (1990). The Environmental Protection Agency: Asking the wrong questions New York: Oxford University Press.

29.

Marx, L. (1967). The machine in the garden: Technology and the pastoral ideal in America New York: Oxford University Press.

30.

Nash, R. (1982). Wilderness and the American mind ( 3rdEd.). New Haven, CT : Yale University Press.

31.

Office of Federal Procurement Policy. (1998 , December 11). RCRA: A report on agencies' implementation for fiscal years 1992 and 1993 OFPP Washington, D.C.: Author. [On-line], Available: http://www.dtic.mil/c3i/bprcd/6018.htm/ .

32.

Pytte, A. (1990). Congress may have to intervene as garbage wars intensify Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 48(3), 173-177.

33.

Quinn, D. (1992). Ishmael: An adventure of the mind and spirit New York: Bantam Books.

34.

Sale, K. (1993). The green revolution: The American environmental movement, 1962-1992 New York: Hill and Wang.

35.

Schnaiberg, A. & Gould, K.A. (1994). Environment and society: The enduring conflict New York: St Martins Press.

36.

Seidman, E. (1983). Unexamined premises of social problem solving In E. Seidman (Ed.), Handbook of social intervention (pp. 48-67). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

37.

Seis, M. (1993). Ecological blunders in U.S. clean air legislation Journal of Human Justice, 5(1), 58-81.

38.

Seis, M. (1992). Air pollution: A debate over regulation or an urgent matter of eradication? Unpublished manuscript, Indiana University Pennsylvania.

39.

Shabecoff, P. (1993). A fierce green fire: The American environmental movement New York: Hill and Wang .

40.

Starr, R. (1991). Waste disposal: A miracle of immaculate consumption? The Public Interest, 105(Fall), 17-29.

41.

Veblen, T. (1899/1979). The theory of the leisure class New York: Viking Penguin.

42.

Voigt, L. ; Thornton, W.E. ; Barrile, L. ; & Seaman, J.M. (1994). Criminology and justice New York: McGraw-Hill.

43.

Weinberg, A.K. (1935). Manifest destiny: A study of nationalist expansionism in American history Chicago: Quadrangle Books.

44.

White, L., Jr. (1967). The historical roots of our ecological crisis Science, 155 . 1203-1207.

45.

World Resources Institute. (1998). World resources : A report by the World Resources Institute and the Intemational Institute for Environment and Development New York: Basic Books.

46.

Worster, D. (1994). Nature's economy: A history of ecological ideas (2ndEd.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

47.

Young, J.E. (1991). Discarding the throwaway society Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute.