Low-Hanging Fruit: Social Values and Industry Discretion in Toxics Use Reduction Policy

Abstract

In this article, we examine the implementation of an innovative environmental policy, the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA), which seeks to shift environmental intervention into production through the reduction of toxics use. TURA attempts to promote change by requiring facilities to undertake toxics use reduction planning as a way to identify opportunities for reducing hazardous chemical use, and the creation of a new third-party policy actor known as the toxics use reduction planner to monitor facility compliance. We draw upon interviews with toxics use reduction planners to highlight the limited nature of change actually wrought by toxics use reduction planning. The article concludes that industry preferences, while not wholly inconsistent with change, have largely determined the way in which this public policy has been implemented.