Summary of Selected Commercial Pollution-Prevention Efforts in Alaska

Abstract

Businesses and government agencies in Alaska recycle and reduce a wide variety of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes each year. A substantial component of their efforts are documented in "Waste Minimization/ Pollution Prevention Supplemental Reports" submitted by businesses and agencies to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. These reports describe how facilities are meeting federal guidelines to reduce hazardous wastes. The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of information and feedback to facilities that handle these different types of wastes. Our analysis is based on the information businesses and government agencies have submitted to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation on the "Waste Minimization / Pollution Prevention Supplements to Annual Hazardous Waste Reports." For this study we analyzed a total of 121 supplemental reports submitted to the department in 1995 and 1996. The supplemental reports contain four sections: Section A: Steps taken to reduce and recycle hazardous wastes, Section B: Identifying and assessing opportunities for source reduction and recycling, Section C: Planning for pollution prevention, and Section D: Pollution prevention programs that include other waste streams. For each section of these supplemental reports, we have analyzed, described, and statistically summarized selected information submitted by facilities.