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Motivating Recycling: A Marginal Cost Analysis

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  • REBECCA Judge
  • ANTHONY Becker

Abstract

Areas considering alternative house‐to‐house recycling programs as a means of diverting material from landfills can determine the most efficient choice by comparing programs' marginal costs with diversion's marginal benefits. This paper describes a controlled field experiment that observed individual household recycling habits over a six‐month period. The experiment monitored the quantity of material that households recycled under increasingly more convenient (and increasingly more costly) programs. The analysis here uses a Tobit model to determine how the quantity of material diverted varies as a function of convenience factors and demographic characteristics. The analysis compares the value of the expected marginal increase in diversion to the marginal cost of increasing recycling convenience to determine the efficient level of convenience for an area's recycling program.

Suggested Citation

  • REBECCA Judge & ANTHONY Becker, 1993. "Motivating Recycling: A Marginal Cost Analysis," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 11(3), pages 58-68, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:11:y:1993:i:3:p:58-68
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.1993.tb00390.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Porter, Richard C., 1978. "A social benefit-cost analysis of mandatory deposits on beverage containers," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 351-375, December.
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    1. Thomas C. Kinnaman & Don Fullerton, 2002. "The Economics of Residential Solid Waste Management," Chapters, in: Don Fullerton & Thomas C. Kinnaman (ed.), The Economics of Household Garbage and Recycling Behavior, chapter 1, pages 1-48, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Abbott, Andrew & Nandeibam, Shasikanta & O'Shea, Lucy, 2013. "Recycling: Social norms and warm-glow revisited," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 10-18.
    3. Campbell, Benjamin & Khachatryan, Hayk & Behe, Bridget & Hall, Charles & Dennis, Jennifer, 2016. "Crunch the can or throw the bottle? Effect of “bottle deposit laws” and municipal recycling programs," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 98-109.
    4. Highfill, Jannett & McAsey, Michael, 1997. "Municipal Waste Management: Recycling and Landfill Space Constraints," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 118-136, January.
    5. Scott Callan & Janet Thomas, 1999. "Adopting a Unit Pricing System for Municipal Solid Waste: Policy and Socio-Economic Determinants," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 14(4), pages 503-518, December.
    6. Bohm, Robert A. & Folz, David H. & Kinnaman, Thomas C. & Podolsky, Michael J., 2010. "The costs of municipal waste and recycling programs," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 54(11), pages 864-871.
    7. Marie Briguglio, 2016. "Household Cooperation In Waste Management: Initial Conditions And Intervention," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 497-525, July.
    8. Paul Missios & Ida Ferrara, 2011. "A Cross-Country Study of Waste Prevention and Recycling," Working Papers 028, Ryerson University, Department of Economics.
    9. Ida Ferrara & Paul Missios, 2012. "A Cross-Country Study of Household Waste Prevention and Recycling: Assessing the Effectiveness of Policy Instruments," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(4), pages 710-744.
    10. Ferrara, Ida & Missios, Paul, 2011. "A Cross-Country Study of Household Waste Prevention and Recycling: Assessing the Effective of Policy Instruments," MPRA Paper 70811, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Yanmin He & Hideki Kitagawa & YeeKeong Choy & Xin Kou & Peii Tsai, 2020. "What Affects Chinese Households’ Behavior in Sorting Solid Waste? A Case Study from Shanghai, Shenyang, and Chengdu," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-21, October.

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