This volume analyzes the politics of hazardous waste siting and explores promising new strategies for siting facilities. Existing approaches to waste siting facilities have almost entirely failed, across all industrialized countries, largely because of community or NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) opposition. This volume examines a new strategy, voluntary choice siting - a process requiring mutual decisions negotiated between facility developers and the host communities. This bottom-up approach preserves democratic rights, recognizes the importance of public perceptions, and addresses issues of equity. In this collection, an interdisciplinary group of experts probes recent examples of waste facilities siting in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Japan. Both the successes and the failures presented offer practical insights into the siting process. The book includes an introductory review of the literature on facility siting and the NIMBY phenomenon as well as instructive essays on the use of voluntary processes in facilities siting. This book will be of value to policymakers, industry, and environmental groups, as well as to those working in environmental studies and engineering, political science, public health, geography, planning, and business economics.
Editor's IntroductionThe NIMBY Phenomenon and Approaches to Facility SitingDon Munton Part 1: Getting Beyond NIMBY: CasesVoluntary Siting of Hazardous Waste Facilities in Western CanadaGeoffrey Castle and Don Munton Alternatives to NIMBY Gridlock: Voluntary Approaches to Radioactive Waste Facility Siting in Canada and the United StatesBarry Rabe, William C. Gunderson, and Peter T. Harbage Democratic Dialogue and Acceptable Risks: The Politics of High-Level Nuclear Waste Disposal in the United StatesMichael Kraft Hazardous Waste Management and Facility Siting in California David Morell Siting Hazardous Waste Facilities, Japanese Style Don Munton Siting of Hazardous Waste Incinerators in Germany: From Political Imposition to Public InvolvementRobert Seeliger Part 2: Public Perceptions Community Risk Perception and Waste Management in Three Communities at Different Stages in the Siting ProcessClyde Hertzman and Aleck Ostry Worrying About Waste: Diagnosis and PrescriptionSusan Elliott and S. Martin Taylor Part 3: Options and Strategies Using Co-Management to Build Community Support for Waste FacilitiesAlun Richards Voluntary Procedures for Siting Noxious Facilities: Lotteries, Auctions and Benefit-SharingHoward Kunreuther Directions for Engineering Contributions to Successfully Siting Hazardous Waste FacilitiesChristopher Zeiss Conclusion
