Disaster waste and debris clean-up decisions of government actors in the United States
Social Process and Socio-Material Systems
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6422844 |
|---|---|
| Authors | A Marissa Matsler (0000-0003-3294-1991, Environmental Protection Agency, corresponding author), Keely B Maxwell (0000-0002-0802-4723, Environmental Protection Agency) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-22 |
| Publication date | 2024-05-13 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Hazards (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1878-0059 • E-ISSN: 1747-7891 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17477891.2024.2336997 |
| PMID | 40242561 |
| OpenAlex | W4396902740 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 53 |
In the United States, debris removal is one of the costliest and most time-consuming elements of disaster response and recovery. It is essential to reducing secondary environmental and health risks, and to community recovery and rebuilding. Analysis of debris removal and waste management, though, primarily treats it as a series of operational steps and technical decisions. In contrast, this article analyses disaster debris removal decision-making as a social process. We present the findings of an ethnographic study that engaged over 70 government actors from federal, state, local, and Tribal agencies in focus groups and interviews. By examining the experiences of these actors, who are central to debris removal decisions, this article identifies decision points that send waste down particular pathways from collection to final disposal. Three operational areas of concern that emerge from the analysis are: local control and capacity, cost and reimbursement, and balance between urgency and sustainability. This article shows how social processes in particular socio-material systems shape these decisions, such as the interplay of waste and disaster institutional arrangements. Finally, it shares practical implications for social process workarounds to operational challenges, such as interagency and interlevel relationships, that can support on-the-ground decision-making
Business · Debris · Disaster recovery · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Government (linguistics · Political science · Process (computing · Sustainability · Workaround · Computer Science · Disaster Management and Resilience · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities · Environmental Science · Facility Location and Emergency Management
Purity and Danger
Institutional Ethnography
Discard Studies
Naturalistic Decision Making
Disaster and Recovery
Quantification of disaster waste
Trees, trash, and hurricanes
Waste Siege
The Politics of Crisis Management
Handbook of Disaster Research
The Anthropology of Power-Wielding Bureaucracies
Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Public Policy
Capacity building for post disaster construction and demolition waste management
Transforming debris management
Procedural equity and corporeality
Deconstructing disaster
Elements of Resilience After the World Trade Center Disaster
Caring for waste
When Diverse Norms Meet Weak Plans
Unruly Experts
The Taphonomy of Disaster and the (Re)Formation of New Orleans
Developing and Using a Codebook for the Analysis of Interview Data
How to Study People Who Do Not Want to be Studied
Skunkworks in the Embers of the Cedar Fire
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |