Gao Featured At SWANA's Blue Box Conference

Allan T. Chan, Senior Analyst for the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO)presented the recently released GAO report Recycling: Additional Efforts Could Increase Municipal Recycling at SWANA's Thinking Outside the Blue Box Recycling and Special Waste Conferenceon February 26-27, 2007, in Tampa, Fla.

Mr. Chanoutlined the various report recommendations for increasing the national recycling rate following a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study that showed the recycling rate increased only three percent between 2000 and 2005 (from 29 percent to 32 percent).

"SWANA is very pleased that the GAO report was featured at Thinking Outside the Blue Box in Tampa," commented SWANA Executive Director and CEO, John H. Skinner, Ph.D., continuing, "this is an important report that supports many of the recommendations that SWANA has made in the past to increasing recycling."

Recycling stakeholders GAO interviewed identified various policy options that they believe could help municipalities increase their recycling rates.The three federal policy options cited most frequently were to (1) establish a nationwide campaign to educate the public about recycling, (2) enact a national "bottle bill" in which beverage containers may be returned for money, and (3) require manufacturers to stablish systems that consumers can use to recycle their products.

For more about Thinking Outside the Blue Box and this feature presentation, visit http://ThinkingOutsideTheBlueBox.com.