Product take-back (also called extended producer responsibility) has become a trend for dealing with the garbage resulting from categories of problematic products. Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is one such category with computer equipment being of particular significance. This article provides a description of the European…

Explores why the United States Nuclear Waste Program has been unable to find a volunteer state to host either a nuclear waste repository or monitored retrieval storage facility. Discusses the Department of Energy's plans for Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a repository and state and tribal responses to the plan. (21 references) (MCO)

Provides an inventory of international radioactive waste-management policies and repository siting decisions for North America, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. This discussion stresses the important role of demographic, geologic, and political factors in siting decisions. (Author/BSR)

Today's industrial economies were founded on the use of vast quantities of materials and energy, and the economic health of nations has often been equated with the amount they consumed. The amount of materials that originally enters an economy tells nothing about the material's eventual fate or its contribution to human well-being. It tells a good…

Discusses the provisions of the current proposals to amend the Right-to-Know Act of 1986 that are designed to inform surrounding communities about hazardous materials a facility uses, stores or disposes. (Author/MCO)

Cites a recycling success story involving sludge production from wastewater and transformation into an effective plant fertilizer. Discusses related concerns such as dealing with pollutants like heavy metals and PCBs often found in sludge. Provides an example of an application of sludge produced in Chicago to an area reclamation site. (MCO)

Two groups of adolescents and a group of Coast Guard officials were interviewed about hypothetical political problems. Solutions presented were arrayed along a continuum of expertise, according to the complexity of subjects' political schemata and skills used in problem representation. (BC)

A discussion of college and university responsibility to comply with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compliance, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) focuses on recent court litigation and suggests practical procedures for colleges to anticipate and control environmental problems. Colleges and universities are cautioned to be prepared for…

Public concern about the safety of continued reliance on pesticides in agricultural production is widespread and growing. The lack of understanding of how food is grown, the role of pesticides in food production, the risk assessment and regulatory processes and alternatives to pesticide use limits citizen participation in food safety debates and…

This booklet is about the disposal of high-level nuclear waste in the United States with a particular focus on Yucca Mountain, Nevada as a repository site. Intended for readers who do not have a technical background, the booklet discusses why scientists and engineers think high-level nuclear waste may be disposed of safely underground. An…

Discusses idea that education "for" the environment should begin as early as do other components of the British National Curriculum, continue throughout, and not be regarded as the poor relation of education "about" the environment. Maintaining the health of the environment is considered by the author to be the most important task that will face…

Urges colleges to develop cost-effective strategies for complying with environmental legislation and protect themselves and their employees from financial liability. Explains the personal liability of school officials for unsafe hazardous waste disposal practices. Reviews environmental laws, impacts of Right to Know legislation, the increase of…

Discusses accomplishments of students in Miami Middle School and High School in northeastern Oklahoma, who with the help of teachers are linking their lived experience, school-based learning, and new-found activism through the medium of a service-learning project. Discusses the history of Tar Creek, now designated as the nation's worst…

Presents the scientific basis for the impacts of the environment on children and describes the differences between adults and children in physical, biological, and social environments. The article highlights why children should not be treated as "little adults" in developing environmental policy. (GR)

This document describes Montana's postsecondary curriculum to prepare hazardous materials technicians. Basic general education requirements are described. The technical skills and the knowledge associated with each are listed in the following categories: (1) site assessment; (2) sampling materials; (3) handling materials; (4) recording data; (5)…