IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2019-283.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Disposal is Not Free: Fiscal Instruments to Internalize the Environmental Costs of Solid Waste

Author

Listed:
  • Ms. Thornton Matheson

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of global solid waste generation, its environmental costs, and fiscal instruments that can be used to encourage waste reduction and finance proper disposal. Countries—especially island nations--struggle to manage an ever-increasing volume of solid waste, generation of which is projected to exceed 2 billion tons a year by 2025. Although solid waste management is usually relegated to subnational governments, externalities from inadequate management, which include greenhouse gas emissions and ocean plastic pollution, reach global scale. National governments thus play a critical role in creating incentives for waste minimization and ensuring adequate resources for proper waste management. This paper evaluates potential fiscal instruments to achieve these goals, particularly in developing country policy environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Ms. Thornton Matheson, 2019. "Disposal is Not Free: Fiscal Instruments to Internalize the Environmental Costs of Solid Waste," IMF Working Papers 2019/283, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2019/283
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=48854
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas C. Kinnaman, 2006. "Policy Watch: Examining the Justification for Residential Recycling," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(4), pages 219-232, Fall.
    2. Don Fullerton & Thomas C. Kinnaman, 2002. "Garbage, Recycling, and Illicit Burning or Dumping," Chapters, in: Don Fullerton & Thomas C. Kinnaman (ed.), The Economics of Household Garbage and Recycling Behavior, chapter 2, pages 49-62, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Martin Medina, 2010. "Solid Wastes, Poverty and the Environment in Developing Country Cities: Challenges and Opportunities," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-023, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Walls, Margaret, 2011. "Deposit-Refund Systems in Practice and Theory," RFF Working Paper Series dp-11-47, Resources for the Future.
    5. Walls, Margaret & Palmer, Karen, 2001. "Upstream Pollution, Downstream Waste Disposal, and the Design of Comprehensive Environmental Policies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 94-108, January.
    6. Medina, Martin, 2010. "Solid Wastes, Poverty and the Environment in Developing Country Cities," WIDER Working Paper Series 023, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Bel, Germà & Gradus, Raymond, 2016. "Effects of unit-based pricing on household waste collection demand: A meta-regression analysis," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 169-182.
    8. Frank Convery & Simon McDonnell & Susana Ferreira, 2007. "The most popular tax in Europe? Lessons from the Irish plastic bags levy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 38(1), pages 1-11, September.
    9. Johane Dikgang & Martine Visser, 2012. "Behavioural Response To Plastic Bag Legislation In Botswana," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 80(1), pages 123-133, March.
    10. Miedema, Allen K., 1983. "Fundamental economic comparisons of solid waste policy options," Resources and Energy, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 21-43, March.
    11. Johane Dikgang & Anthony Leiman & Martine Visser, 2012. "Elasticity of demand, price and time: lessons from South Africa's plastic-bag levy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(26), pages 3339-3342, September.
    12. Palmer, Karen & Walls, Margaret, 1997. "Optimal policies for solid waste disposal Taxes, subsidies, and standards," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 193-205, August.
    13. Acuff, Kaylee & Kaffine, Daniel T., 2013. "Greenhouse gas emissions, waste and recycling policy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 74-86.
    14. Brett, Craig & Keen, Michael, 2000. "Political uncertainty and the earmarking of environmental taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 315-340, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Goshu Desalegn & Anita Tangl, 2022. "Banning Vs Taxing, Reviewing the Potential Opportunities and Challenges of Plastic Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-16, June.
    2. Nik Nor Rahimah Nik Ab Rahim & Jamal Othman & Norlida Hanim Mohd Salleh & Norshamliza Chamhuri, 2021. "A Non-Market Valuation Approach to Environmental Cost-Benefit Analysis for Sanitary Landfill Project Appraisal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-18, July.
    3. Aarthi Aishwarya Devendran & Brijesh Mainali & Dilip Khatiwada & Farzin Golzar & Krushna Mahapatra & Camila H. Toigo, 2023. "Optimization of Municipal Waste Streams in Achieving Urban Circularity in the City of Curitiba, Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-18, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thornton Matheson, 2022. "Disposal is not free: fiscal instruments to internalize the environmental costs of solid waste," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(4), pages 1047-1073, August.
    2. Acuff, Kaylee & Kaffine, Daniel T., 2013. "Greenhouse gas emissions, waste and recycling policy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 74-86.
    3. Lafforgue, Gilles & Lorang, Etienne, 2022. "Recycling under environmental, climate and resource constraints," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    4. Daniel T. Kaffine, 2014. "Scrap Prices, Waste, and Recycling Policy," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 90(1), pages 169-180.
    5. Walls, Margaret, 2011. "Deposit-Refund Systems in Practice and Theory," RFF Working Paper Series dp-11-47, Resources for the Future.
    6. Xi Sun, 2023. "The Role of Carbon Pricing in Promoting Material Recycling: A Model of Multi-Market Interactions," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2034, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    7. Degli Antoni, Giacomo & Vittucci Marzetti, Giuseppe, 2019. "Recycling and Waste Generation: An Estimate of the Source Reduction Effect of Recycling Programs," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 321-329.
    8. Numata, Daisuke, 2009. "Economic analysis of deposit–refund systems with measures for mitigating negative impacts on suppliers," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 199-207.
    9. Asunci n Arner G erre, 2018. "Oil Tax, Subsidies and Extended Producer Responsibility in the Used Oil Market," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 8(2), pages 47-58.
    10. Tobias Erhardt, 2019. "Garbage In and Garbage Out? On Waste Havens in Switzerland," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(1), pages 251-282, May.
    11. 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.
    12. Hiroaki Ino & Norimichi Matsueda, 2019. "The curse of low-valued recycling," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 282-306, June.
    13. Pfister, Naomi & Mathys, Nicole A., 2022. "Waste taxes at work: Evidence from the canton of Vaud in Switzerland," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    14. Ba, Bocar Samba & Soubeyran, Raphael, 2023. "Hotelling and recycling," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    15. Söderholm, Patrik, 2011. "Taxing virgin natural resources: Lessons from aggregates taxation in Europe," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 55(11), pages 911-922.
    16. Valente, Marica, 2023. "Policy evaluation of waste pricing programs using heterogeneous causal effect estimation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    17. Göran Finnveden & Tomas Ekvall & Yevgeniya Arushanyan & Mattias Bisaillon & Greger Henriksson & Ulrika Gunnarsson Östling & Maria Ljunggren Söderman & Jenny Sahlin & Åsa Stenmarck & Johan Sundberg & J, 2013. "Policy Instruments towards a Sustainable Waste Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-41, February.
    18. Satoshi Honma, 2019. "Optimal policies for international recycling between developed and developing countries," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 143-153, August.
    19. M. Dubois & J. Eyckmans, 2015. "Efficient Waste Management Policies and Strategic Behavior with Open Borders," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(4), pages 907-923, December.
    20. Calcott, Paul & Walls, Margaret, 2005. "Waste, recycling, and "Design for Environment": Roles for markets and policy instruments," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 287-305, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2019/283. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.