Waste Trading among Rich Nations: Building a New Theory of Environmental Regulation

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MIT Press, Jun 19, 2000 - Science - 310 pages
When most people think of hazardous waste trading, they think of egregious dumping by U.S. and European firms on poor countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. But over 80 percent of the waste trade takes place between industrialized nations and is legal by domestic and international standards. In Waste Trading among Rich Nations, Kate O'Neill asks why some industrialized nations voluntarily import such wastes in the absence of pressing economic need. She focuses on Britain as an importer and Germany as an exporter and also looks at France, Australia, and Japan. According to O'Neill, most important in determining whether an industrialized democracy imports waste are two aspects of its regulatory system. The first is the structure of the regulatory process—how powers and responsibilities are allocated among different agencies and levels of government—and the structure of the hazardous waste disposal industry. The second is what O'Neill calls the "style" of environmental regulation, in particular access to the policy process and mode of implementation. Hazardous waste management is in crisis in most industrialized countries and is becoming increasingly controversial in international negotiations. O'Neill not only examines waste trading empirically but also develops a theoretical model of comparative regulation that can be used to establish links between domestic and international environmental politics.
 

Contents

Hazardous Waste Trading among OECD Countries A Comparative Approach
1
Out of the Backyard Hazardous Waste Management as an International Issue
25
An Institutional Explanation of the Waste Trade
51
Great Britain Risk Acceptance and the Politics of Flexibility Diffusion and Closure
75
Germany Technocracy Federalism and Risk Aversion
113
The Waste Trade and Environmental Regulation in France Australia and Japan
147
Conclusion
185
Notes
219
References
257
Index
281
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About the author (2000)

Michael E. Kraft is Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs Emeritus and Herbert Fisk Johnson Professor of Environmental Studies Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Sheldon Kamieniecki is Dean of the Division of Social Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author or editor of many other books.

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