Recently, the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) a Boston-based, non-profit member organization that "works with state and local government agencies to partner with manufacturers, retailers, environmental groups, federal agencies, and other key stakeholders to reduce the health and environmental impacts of consumer products" released a report titled, New York State’s Producer Responsibility Law for Electronic Waste: Impacts and Effectiveness in Rural Areas. The brief 11-page report available here,
presents the results of surveys and interviews conducted with solid waste and recycling facility managers across rural New York about trends in electronics scrap recycling rates and costs. Forty percent of those managers report having witnessed an increase in the number of electronics collection sites in their communities since New York’s electronics law went into effect. Sixty-five percent report decreased out-of-pocket fees for residents, who were once charged fees of up to $10 per unit for participating in their communities’ voluntary recycling programs.
Recently, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report, titled Rural Water Infrastructure: Additional Coordination Can Help Avoid Potentially Duplicative Application Requirements GAO-13-111 (Oct. 16, 2012). The 62-page report, available here, discusses how
[m]any rural communities with populations of 10,000 or less face challenges in financing the costs of replacing or upgrading aging and obsolete drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. EPA and USDA oversee the three largest federally funded drinking water and wastewater funding programs for these communities. In response to Pub. L. No. 111-139, which directs GAO to identify and report on duplicative goals or activities in the federal government, this report examines the (1) potential for fragmentation, overlap, and duplication between EPA and USDA drinking water and wastewater infrastructure programs and (2) extent to which these agencies coordinate at the federal and state level to fund community water infrastructure projects. GAO analyzed relevant laws and regulations and program data and documents. GAO also visited five states based on high rural funding needs and geographic location (Colorado, Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota) to meet with federal, state, and community officials and visit projects. GAO recommends that EPA and USDA complete guidelines to help states develop uniform preliminary engineering reports, develop guidelines to help states develop uniform environmental analyses, and reemphasize the importance of statelevel coordination. EPA neither agreed nor disagreed with GAO's first two recommendations and concurred with the third. USDA neither agreed nor disagreed with the recommendations.
