A good solid waste management plan must be environmentally sound. To conserve our resources as much as possible, it should provide for and promote maximum re-use and recycling. In support of this, local units of government should use recycled products whenever economically feasible. Industry should produce less unnecessary packaging and more standardized and bio-degradable containers. It is industry’s obligation to discard the 'built-in obsolescence' theory and to manufacture better quality products.

Education of the public about solid waste problems is a primary need. Public responsibility for environmental control must be accepted. The consumer should be educated to exercise care in purchasing, to demand quality products, to recycle and to change the throw-away philosophy. Local government should foster the use of neighborhood shredders, encourage research for alternatives to yard-burning and enforce existing laws.

Financing of the solid waste management program must be adequate, economical, efficient, manageable and flexible, covering present and future needs. Financing should be supported by private and commercial interest together with local and regional government (city, county) handling the franchising. Transfer stations, recycling and disposal and the disposal sites should be under regional jurisdiction.

The state should have authority over planning, regulation and enforcement of the solid waste program.
(Amended 1990)