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Measuring Progress Toward Beyond Waste

Today’s Reality

Ecology continues to collect and report a huge amount of information about hazardous waste, toxic releases, and solid waste in Washington. Ecology collects data from facilities and businesses, government entities, outside associations, and other sources.

The existing data systems provide good information about hazardous and non-hazardous wastes. Data quality has improved over the years because Ecology worked with those entities that are required to report. Staff and the public can find the data through the Internet and the Solid Waste Annual Report (www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/solidwastedata/report.asp). Ecology has used these data to make projections and to develop performance measures.

In the first five years of Beyond Waste implementation, Ecology developed the Beyond Waste Progress Report (Progress Report; www.ecy.wa.gov/beyondwaste/bwprog_front.html), a new measurement tool for Beyond Waste. The Progress Report is becoming an important part of the solid waste and hazardous waste programs data and evaluation efforts. Recognizing this, agency management is beginning to look toward its broader applications. The Progress Report provides information for other agency initiatives such as climate change, reducing toxic threats, and Puget Sound. Local governments and others find the information useful.

Ecology must continue to build on the Beyond Waste Progress Report and its other data-collection efforts and revise them. We still face challenges in measuring progress toward the Beyond Waste vision:

• Occasional difficulty tracking trends due to regulatory changes or other factors.
• Lack of ability to predict changing waste generation trends.
• Limited ability to find comparable data with other states and entities as well as data for benchmarking, goal-setting, and predicting program impacts.
• Data accuracy varies with reporting methods and lacks verification.
• Limited ability to track use, storage, and disposal of hazardous substances.

The questions below, developed by a team of experts, provided direction for Ecology as the Beyond Waste Progress Report was developed. These questions remain relevant, and continue to outline important areas of focus as Ecology continues to refine its measurement systems:

Key Questions

1. Total waste: How much are we generating? And how many toxic substances are we using?
2. Inputs & efficiency: Are we reducing the use of materials over time?
3. Return flows & eco-effectiveness: How much and what is the value of the “waste” output returned and reused as material inputs?
4. Risk & inherent hazard: Are we reducing risks from toxic materials and wastes?
5. Contribution to vitality: Does eliminating wastes contribute to economic, environmental, and social vitality?
6. Behavior change: Are residents, businesses, and institutions taking actions to achieve the Beyond Waste vision?
7. Beyond Waste strategy effectiveness: Are Ecology’s strategies achieving their intended goals?
8. Capacity & safety: Do we have adequate, safe facilities to handle the remaining wastes?

Goals: What Washington will look like in 30 years (by 2035)

Thirty-year goals for the Measuring Progress Initiative:

A performance-indicator system has been developed.

The system will answer the Key Questions (above) and measure progress toward the Beyond Waste vision over the long term.

Data gaps have been identified.

Their significance has been determined and the important gaps have been filled.

Existing data-collection systems at Ecology have been strengthened.

Existing data is supplemented with other sources of information, such as site visits and surveys, and cross referencing data when appropriate.

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