Info about NSWMA CEO Bruce Parker

Biographical Info

Bruce J. Parker, Esq., is the President and CEO of the Environmental Industry Associations (EIA), a Washington, D.C. based trade organization representing all aspects of the commercial (private) waste services industry. The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) and Waste Equipment Technology Association (WASTEC) are part of EIA.

Prior to assuming his current position, Mr. Parker served as EIA General Counsel and Executive Vice President for Federal and External Affairs. He participated in several landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases involving attempts by state and local governments to prevent or restrict the movement of solid waste in interstate commerce. He has testified before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and before state legislatures on solid waste issues.

Mr. Parker began his career in the early 1970s with the Federal Trade Commission in the Office of General Counsel and in the Division of Consumer Protection. He also was in private practice with a large Washington, D.C. law firm where he practiced environmental and trade law.

Mr. Parker is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley,, where he received a B.A. in English literature. He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 1968, and served as editor-in-chief of the Law Journal. He also was the recipient of the Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity Graduate of the Year Award (1968).

Quoted in Recent Media Stories

• NSWMA Comments on GHG Reporting and Blood-Borne Pathogen Rules (Waste Age, August 16)
  While some of EPA’s changes appear to provide a more reasoned approach to account for the amount of water that might infiltrate into a landfill, other changes impose substantial new data collection requirements mid-reporting year without the benefit of adequate public comment.
• Technology’s impact on waste (American Recycler, August 2010)
  Waste companies, big and small, have benefited from both federal and state funding to convert their fleets from diesel fuel to compressed or liquefied natural gas, and the Section 45 production tax credit for energy produced from renewable fuels has been a major reason for almost 600 landfills extracting clean, renewable energy (landfill gas) from landfills. The states also have been giving grants to haulers to convert to natural gas vehicles. A northern California refuse company recently received over $400,000 from the Bay Area Quality Management District to buy about 23 CNG refuse trucks.
• NSWMA and SWANA Comment on Changes to EPA Program (geosynthetica.net, May 3)
  NSWMA President and CEO Bruce J. Parker concurred, "While our organizations support composting in an integrated solid waste management system, we believe that the capture and beneficial use of methane at landfills is a crucial component in reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions from the solid waste sector. The LMOP program must be sustained."
• Critics say Fairfax playing dirty with trash (Washington Examiner, April 9)
  Bruce Parker, president of the National Solid Wastes Management Association, called the decision evidence of an "antipathy towards the general business community" although the county faces a $257 million budget shortfall. "If [lower costs are] true why not prove it through competitive bidding, instead of merely asserting it?" Parker wrote in a letter to Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova.
• NSWMA: Tritium-containing Exit Signs Don't Belong in Landfills (Environmental Protection Magazine, March 31)
  Bruce J. Parker, NSWMA’s president and chief executive officer, said the solid waste industry has a vested interest in developing sensible rules for the disposal of hazardous substances such as tritium. "America’s solid waste industry provides an essential service that helps protect the environment and public health. We support all efforts to keep potentially harmful materials out of landfills,” said Parker. “We are pleased to have the opportunity to express our support for this potential rule change by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency."
• PR Campaign Draws Strength From the Grassroots (ASAE News, March 1)
  "The remarkable thing about our industry is that when trash is collected on schedule and streets are clean and there are no threats to public health, no one thinks about us," says Bruce Parker, president and CEO of EIA. "We want to educate key audiences that the industry is using innovation to reduce its carbon footprint through recycling, creating renewable energy from landfill gas, and conserving natural resources. We are part of the solution, not the problem."
• A ‘Zero Waste’ Society? (New York Times, October 29)
  "America’s solid waste management industry fully supports efforts to increase the reduction, reuse and recycling of waste. In fact, we developed the technology that has made composting and recycling more accessible than ever…"

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