Title: For the collective good? Free-market claims for hazardous waste

Authors: Stephanie A. Welcomer, Mark Haggerty

Addresses: University of Maine, USA. ' University of Maine, USA

Abstract: This article employs critical theory to analyze how the free-market perspective legitimates hazardous waste production and disposal. This legitimation is most apparent in processes of regulation and disposal of hazardous waste. Integral to regulation and disposal is a series of communication acts aimed at defining hazardous waste, suggesting particular relations of the substances to production, society, and individuals. We argue that free-market claims fundamentally distort the relation of hazardous waste to society, individuals, democratic process, and the ecosystem. We suggest that a reliance on a more holistic economic approach is necessary to address the dilemma facing society.

Keywords: free market; hazardous waste; legitimisation; waste regulation; waste disposal; economics.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2003.053897

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2003 Vol.5 No.1, pp.28 - 48

Published online: 13 May 2013 *

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