Resilience: Meadville, PA - 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Globally: The United Nations defines responsible consumption and production in terms of promoting resource and energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and providing access to basic services, green and decent jobs and a better quality of life for all.

Meadville: This goal requires socially and environmentally conscious industry, providing citizens access to sustainably sourced goods, and reducing the environmental impacts of our consumption habits.

Local Facts and Figures

How does Meadville's environmental policy encourage responsible consumption and production?

There is currently no environmental policy for the City of Meadville (1)

What options are there for metal scrap, electronic and hazardous waste disposal in Meadville?

Environmental Coordination Services and Recycling (ECS&R) is located 8 miles south of Meadville and takes some electronics, as well as some hazardous waste (2)
Lincoln Recycling in Meadville accepts metals, including appliances, some electronics, cars, and all sorts of metal scrap. (3)

Do Meadville citizens have access to locally sourced food?

Market House (4)
- Farmers Market
French Creek Food Hub(5)
The MARC community garden (6)

How does industry interact with the environment?

Before the sale to Smuckers, Ainsworth was recycling over 99% of their waste materials, and upgraded their trucks to high efficiency models with light-weight trailers to reduce fuel consumption. (7)

Local Strengths and Opportunities

Industrial production in Meadville shows little negative effect on the local environment
Downtown boasts a number of businesses that provide locally produced goods

Local Weaknesses and Threats

Meadville does not have emissions targets, and lacks a meaningful environmental policy
While locally sourced products are available in Meadville, those products are not easily accessible by lower income members of the community.

Case Studies

DES MOINES, WASHINGTON: The city of Des Moines, Washington has found a way to increase community access to healthy, fresh food that is locally grown.

AMSTERDAM WASTE-TO-ENERGY: Amsterdam has greatly reduced their dependency on fossil fuels, and eliminated the flow of waste into the landfills, allowing them to both produce and consume more responsibly.

EUROPEAN ALLOTMENT GARDENS:

Citations