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SWANA Advocacy

The goal of SWANA's advocacy program is to represent the interests of the solid waste profession by being a proactive advocate of environmentally and economically sound solid waste legislation and regulations. The Association's advocacy efforts are focused on four major fronts: 

Legislative and Regulatory Monitoring

SWANA monitors federal legislative and regulatory activity to keep our members informed of issues pertinent to the municipal solid waste industry.   A listing and the latest summaries of important legislation can be found in the “Issues and Legislation” Section of SWANA’s Action Center.  

SWANA compiles three quarterly reports on litigation, U.S. legislation, and Canadian Legislation.  These reports can be downloaded in the “Advocacy Reports” section of SWANA’s  e-Library, accessible through our Member’s Only Site.  If you are a SWANA member and would like to receive legislative updates by email, please email us.

Grassroots Advocacy

SWANA’s grassroots advocacy efforts are focused on our e-advocacy program, which empowers, educates, and mobilizes our members to achieve legislative and regulatory success.  SWANA’s Action Center, the home of our e-advocacy program, provides legislative alerts, summaries, and tools to assist you in advancing your legislative goals.   You can use this site to contact your elected officials, key committees, federal agencies, and other policy makers.

Regulatory Action

SWANA monitors all pertinent regulatory changes to the solid waste industry.  Our advocacy program depends on the efforts of our members to provide input to federal agencies and other entities to guide their rulemaking.  SWANA looks to its 7 Technical Divisions and their respective committees to provide information and supply comments on upcoming rules and regulations. 

Legislation to Advance SWANA’s Mission

SWANA works with outside groups, coalitions, legislators, and agencies to advance our legislative goals.  Regular advocacy, which is carried out within the established SWANA advocacy budget, involves the more routine response to actions or proposals from the EPA, Environment Canada, and other federal agencies. Special advocacy, which generally requires a specific allocation of resources or targeted fund raising, involves more resource intensive efforts over a longer term. Examples of special advocacy include work on Landfill Gas Tax Credits and Bioreactor Landfills.

SWANA Staff is responsible for advocacy on the federal level and the SWANA chapters are responsible for advocacy on the state and provincial level. The International Office is proactive in offering assistance to SWANA chapters in tracking activities at the state and provincial level and the sharing of information across chapters on state and provincial legislative and regulatory activities.