Waste and

community concerns
Moving beyond NIMBYism
in understanding and dealing with public concerns about environmental and health risks

Presented by Dr Salim Vohra, Peter Brett Associates

Environment Ireland 2006, Dublin, 4th-5th September 2006
Photograph courtesy of Lloyd Nebres at the University of California, Berkeley, USA
The Risk Society: the dark side of modernity

“Images of dying seals or

forests
come to stand for the
vastness
of the risks that surround
us,
rendering comprehensible
the incomprehensible and
The Risk Culture: the dark side of modernity
Cracks began to open all
around …
Even pleasure no longer felt
the same …
Food becomes a foretaste of
heart disease.
The body itself was subversive
of the ‘self’;
in the ‘youth culture’, the very
existence of
the flesh was onset of decline
 Explaining public perceptions of risks

 Non-rationality

 Rationality

 Misperception

 Plural rationalities
 The Risk Community:
a model for predicting and dealing with public concern
technical concerns social concerns cultural concerns

Direct environmental, social Planning and siting process Power, values and identity
and economic concerns concerns concerns
traffic powerful stakeholders
not enough information
are dishonest, selfish,
air pollution more time for
imposing, and
noise consultation
disrespectful of locals
degrade/ blight area inadequate impact
smell assessment utilitarian, libertarian vs.
future operation how site chosen and egalitarian notions of
others considered justice
health
no community benefits Breaching of Idealisation of
leakage planning rules neighbourhood and
house prices conflicts of interest stigmatisation as
‘rubbish’

low emotion CONCERN SPECTRUM high emotion

direct concerns

process concerns

symbolic concerns
 The Risk Community: so what?
 No one, lay publics or expert-professionals, actively
chooses to live near a waste facility.

 There is a continuum from lesser to greater concern

about the full range of ‘non-hazardous’ and ‘hazardous’
developments from the neighbours’ patio and kitchen
extension to a nearby supermarket or waste facility.

 Direct and indirect knowledge and experiences tend to

reduce perceptions of risks and make living near a
WDF more tolerable.
Implications for waste planning and management

 Emotion, intuition, imagination and

reason are closely intertwined in
scientific and lay understandings of
the world.

 Lay risk assessment is wider taking

in the technical, socio-political and
cultural.

 Technical risk assessment is

important but not sufficient to deal
with a community’s concerns.
Implications for waste planning and management

affected stakeholder groups

facts + values = decisions

science
Trends in waste planning and management
 Using assessment approaches that
are sensitive to local context and
have community involvement at the
heart of the process e.g. HIA

 Waste planners and developers as

guides and facilitators

 Waste planners and developers

dealing with the uncertainty created
by devolving power and accepting
differences in values