| Incineration has always been one way that human society has disposed of its waste products; however, this waste disposal process has become more contentious in recent years. This dissertation examines the process of siting municipal solid waste incinerators in an attempt to find particular points within the incinerator siting process which may be vulnerable to citizen action. Two case studies--one of the siting process in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and the other of Cape May County, New Jersey--are used to examine the inplementation process and the tactics used to gain or keep control of the this process. This study finds that the incinerator implementation process follows a standard routine up to the point at which the proponents attempt to authorize incineration as a solution to the county waste disposal problems. After that point, opposition forms and the implementation process becomes dynamic. This study then compares tactics and rhetoric used by proponents and opponents, attempting to develop an understanding of the outcome of the process. |
