Title

What You See Is Not What You Get: Business Perceptions Of Public Opinion And Government Regulation Of Hazardous Waste

Abstract

As specialists in the field of opinion research, over the past three years we have gained a firm grasp of public attitudes on waste-related issues, and we have identified the factors that shape those attitudes. Yet it is here that we encounter a paradox. Through active interaction with the waste industry and its consultants, we have learned that many professionals within the business community do not accurately perceive the bases of public resistance to, and acceptance of, hazardous waste and treatment technologies. This misinterpretation, we believe, has hindered constructive dialogue between business and the public over prospective technologies, siting, and a raft of related challenges. Importantly, such misperceptions also serve to dramatize this disparity: As understanding of public opinion on waste issues has grown in range and sophistication, knowledge of industry perceptions and beliefs remains alarmingly limited. Our one-year study is aimed directly at this imbalance. We will determine industry attitudes on issues having key importance for public communication and government policy. Our project calls for a large-scale survey of firms involved in all facets of hazardous waste: producers, transporters, technology-support firms, public communication consultants, and others. Our findings will, of course, be of great interest to scholars in a variety of specialized fields. But since this project's key objective is the enhancement of industry-based knowledge, we will focus major effort on an annotated summary that is accessible to all informed readers.

Publication Date

1-1-1993

Publication Title

Waste Management

Volume

13

Issue

5-7

Number of Pages

532-

Document Type

Article

Identifier

scopus

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/0956-053x(93)90122-d

Socpus ID

0027842903 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/0027842903

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