Sustainable Materials Management: At Your Fingertips

Originally posted November 15, 2016 on It All Starts with Science, EPA’s Science Blog. M-Wiz is currently in peer review.  

By Mike Nye, Ph.D. 

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Those three simple tenants capture a whole world of improving our environment. But, of course, there are a host of often complex, far-reaching decisions to be made in moving those three steps into practice. What are the best ways to handle each step?  Where can individuals, businesses, communities, and States turn to find the answers?

For decades, EPA researchers and their colleagues have explored those questions to find answers and develop best practices. Together, they have been so successful that it can be a daunting challenge to hone that information for any particular need.

That is, until now.

EPA recently announced the release of the beta version of EPA’s Materials Management Wizard web application (or “M-Wiz,” for short)—that puts that wealth of knowledge at your fingertips in a guided, easy-to-use format you can tailor to your specific needs and goals.

From an individual homeowner looking for tips on composting to site managers needing to handle tons of construction and demolition materials, users can use M-Wiz to find just the information they need to make plans and take action. M-Wiz taps a rich repository of EPA-sourced tools and resources designed to support sustainable materials management decisions by communities, stakeholders, educators, and others.

Anyone who has ever spent a few hours with some of the popular tax return software that is now widely available will recognize the easy-to-use, guided format of M-Wiz. By first checking off a few boxes and then responding to questions about the type of information you seek, you are quickly presented with key information and resources to handle materials recovery and advance sustainability.

EPA developed M-Wiz as part of the Agency’s goal to make visible differences in improving communities across the nation.

I invite you to explore M-Wiz for yourself to see how EPA can help you and your community to take “reduce, reuse, and recycle” to a whole new level, right from your computer.

About the Author: Michael Nye, Ph.D., is a social scientist who studies natural risk, socio-demographic change and sustainable behavior.