Bette Fishbein
Senior Fellow

Bette Fishbein joined INFORM in March 1990 and is now Senior Fellow in the Waste Prevention Program. Ms. Fishbein has directed research projects that include solid waste planning for states and municipalities, development of positive source reduction initiatives in the business and public sectors, and public policies that promote source reduction and recycling.

With the publication of her overview of Germany's packaging legislation, Germany, Garbage, and the Green Dot: Challenging the Throwaway Society (1994), Ms. Fishbein became recognized as a leading national expert on the emerging concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR). She worked with the Eco-Efficiency Task Force of the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) to develop US policies based on this concept and has brought her knowledge of EPR to other forums such as the EPR2 Roundtable which addresses electronic product recovery and recycling, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on developing EPR guidelines for its member countries. In a joint project with the University of Tennessee, Ms. Fishbein documented the national program launched by battery manufacturers to collect and recycle spent nickel-cadmium batteries in the US.

Ms. Fishbein is the author of numerous INFORM publications, including Waste in the Wireless World: The Challenge of Cell Phones (May 2002). Other recent publications include Extended Producer Responsibility: A Materials Policy for the 21st Century, a report prepared in conjunction with the World’s Fair Expo 2000 in Germany and Leasing: A Step Toward Producer Responsibility, which examines the effectiveness of leasing as an alternative to mandated take-back programs. Ms. Fishbein is also principal author of Making Less Garbage: A Planning Guide for Communities (1993), co-author of Reducing Office Paper Waste (1991), and has published many articles on solid waste source reduction issues. An INFORM publication authored by Ms. Fishbein, Building for the Future (1999), documents waste prevention strategies for municipal construction projects.

Previously, Ms. Fishbein was an economist and public policy analyst for the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies in White Plains, New York, directing research on social welfare policy. She is the author of Social Welfare Abroad and articles on social welfare, the consumer price index, and the food stamp program. Ms. Fishbein was a research analyst with the National Bureau of Economic Research and Resources for the Future, and an intern with the Joint Economic Committee. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College, Phi Beta Kappa, with honors in economics.