IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/5116.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economics of the Generation and Management of Municipal Solid Waste

Author

Listed:
  • David N. Beede
  • David E. Bloom

Abstract

This paper examines the generation and management of solid waste (MSW) through the lens of economics. We estimate that the global burden of MSW amounted to 1.3 billion metric tons in 1990, or 0.67 kilograms of waste per person per day. Industrial countries account for a disproportionate share of world MSW relative to their share of world population, while developing countries account for a disproportionate share of the world's MSW relative to their share of world income. Cross-country and time-series analyses reveal that MSW generation is positively associated but inelastic with respect to per capita income, and positively associated and unit elastic with respect to population size. Practices for collecting, processing, and disposing of MSW vary widely across countries in accord with the nature of the waste stream and key features of the environmental and economic context. However the least efficient practices tend to be found in developing countries, where MSW poses serious environmental quality and public health threats. Although considerable evidence indicates that the generation and management of MSW is sensitive to income and price variables, natural incentives to overuse common property and the presence of intergenerational externalities both suggest that private economic behavior will not yield socially optimal outcomes in this area. Community intervention may thereby promote the social good, with evidence accumulating that favors arrangements involving the of private firms. The cost of MSW management is likely to grow faster than the pace of urbanization if urbanization outpaces the development of transportation infrastructures. Our calculations also suggest that improvements in the handling of hazardous MSW will be far less expensive in discounted terms than undoing in the future the damage being caused by current practices.

Suggested Citation

  • David N. Beede & David E. Bloom, 1995. "Economics of the Generation and Management of Municipal Solid Waste," NBER Working Papers 5116, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5116
    Note: EH
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w5116.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    2. 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.
    3. Arthur C. Nelson & John Genereux & Michelle Genereux, 1992. "Price Effects of Landfills on House Values," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 68(4), pages 359-365.
    4. 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.
    5. Clark Wiseman, 1992. "Government and Recycling: Are We Promoting Waste?," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 12(2), pages 443-460, Fall.
    6. Peter Mieszkowski & Edwin S. Mills, 1993. "The Causes of Metropolitan Suburbanization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 135-147, Summer.
    7. Edwin S. Mills & Jee Peng Tan, 1980. "A Comparison of Urban Population Density Functions in Developed and Developing Countries," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 17(3), pages 313-321, October.
    8. W. Michael Hanemann, 1994. "Valuing the Environment through Contingent Valuation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 19-43, Fall.
    9. Shafik, Nemat & Bandyopadhyay, Sushenjit, 1992. "Economic growth and environmental quality : time series and cross-country evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 904, The World Bank.
    10. Bartone, Carl & Bernstein, Janis & Wright, Frederick, 1990. "Investments in solid waste management : opportunities for environmental improvement," Policy Research Working Paper Series 405, The World Bank.
    11. Paul R. Portney, 1994. "The Contingent Valuation Debate: Why Economists Should Care," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 3-17, Fall.
    12. Peter A. Diamond & Jerry A. Hausman, 1994. "Contingent Valuation: Is Some Number Better than No Number?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 45-64, Fall.
    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. Agovino, Massimiliano & Musella, Gaetano, 2020. "Separate waste collection in mountain municipalities. A case study in Campania," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Kofi Otumawu-Apreku, 2020. "Solid Waste Management: A Socio-Economic Perspective of Urban and Peri-Urban Communities in Honiara," International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 25(4), pages 180-192, September.
    3. Rayan Baalbaki & Walid Marrouch, 2020. "Is there a garbage Kuznets curve? Evidence from OECD countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 1049-1055.
    4. Walsh, E. & Babakina, O. & Pennock, A. & Shi, H. & Chi, Y. & Wang, T. & Graedel, T.E., 2006. "Quantitative guidelines for urban sustainability," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 45-61.
    5. Francisco André & Francisco Velasco & Luis Gonzalez-Abril, 2009. "Intertemporal and spatial location of disposal facilities," Spanish Economic Review, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 23-49, March.
    6. Francesco Colelli & Edoardo Croci, 2021. "Assessment of environmental and economic benefits of packaging waste system in Italy," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(1), pages 37-58.
    7. Anni Huhtala, 1997. "A Post-Consumer Waste Management Model for Determining Optimal Levels of Recycling and Landfilling," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10(3), pages 301-314, October.
    8. Ludovic Fontaine & Dominique Morau & Jean-Philippe Praene, 2022. "Analysis and Estimation of Short Term Residual Household Waste Production: Case Study Reunion Island," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-24, December.
    9. Meylan, Grégoire & Seidl, Roman & Spoerri, Andy, 2013. "Transitions of municipal solid waste management. Part I: Scenarios of Swiss waste glass-packaging disposal," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 8-19.
    10. Sukanya Das & Ekin Birol & Rabindra N. Bhattacharya, 2010. "Informing Efficient Solid Waste Management to Improve Local Environmental Quality and Public Health in West Bengal, India," Chapters, in: Jeff Bennett & Ekin Birol (ed.), Choice Experiments in Developing Countries, chapter 10, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Francisco André & Emilio Cerdá, 2004. "Landfill Construction and Capacity Expansion," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 28(4), pages 409-434, August.
    12. van Beukering, Pieter J. H. & Bouman, Mathijs N., 2001. "Empirical Evidence on Recycling and Trade of Paper and Lead in Developed and Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(10), pages 1717-1737, October.
    13. Huhtala, Anni, 1999. "Optimizing production technology choices: conventional production vs. recycling," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 1-18, January.
    14. Francisco J. André & Emilio Cerdá, 2005. "Gestión de residuos sólidos urbanos: Análisis económico y políticas públicas," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2005/23, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.
    15. Rosalia Castellano & Gaetano Musella & Gennaro Punzo, 2019. "The effect of environmental attitudes and policies on separate waste collection: the case of Insular Italy," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 63-85, April.

    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. John B. Loomis, 2013. "Incorporating distributional issues into benefit–cost analysis: why, how, and two empirical examples using non-market valuation," Chapters, in: Scott O. Farrow & Richard Zerbe, Jr. (ed.), Principles and Standards for Benefit–Cost Analysis, chapter 9, pages 294-316, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Lori D. Snyder & Robert N. Stavins & Alexander F. Wagner, 2003. "Private Options to Use Public Goods Exploiting Revealed Preferences to Estimate Environmental Benefits," Working Papers 2003.49, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    3. Richard T. Carson & W. Michael Hanemann & Raymond J. Kopp & Jon A. Krosnick & Robert Cameron Mitchell & Stanley Presser, 1998. "Referendum Design and Contingent Valuation: The NOAA Panel's No-Vote Recommendation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(2), pages 335-338, May.
    4. John C. Whitehead & Timothy C. Haab & Ju‐Chin Huang, 1998. "Part‐Whole Bias in Contingent Valuation: Will Scope Effects Be Detected with Inexpensive Survey Methods?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(1), pages 160-168, July.
    5. Catherine L. Kling & Daniel J. Phaneuf & Jinhua Zhao, 2012. "From Exxon to BP: Has Some Number Become Better Than No Number?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(4), pages 3-26, Fall.
    6. Roach, Brian & Wade, William W., 2006. "Policy evaluation of natural resource injuries using habitat equivalency analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 421-433, June.
    7. Carson, Richard T. & Hanemann, W. Michael & Kopp, Raymond J. & Krosnick, Jon A. & Mitchell, Robert C. & Presser, Stanley & Ruud, Paul A. & Smith, V. Kerry & Conaway, Michael & Martin, Kerry, 1996. "Was the NOAA Panel Correct about Contingent Valuation?," Discussion Papers 10503, Resources for the Future.
    8. Veisten, Knut, 2007. "Contingent valuation controversies: Philosophic debates about economic theory," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 204-232, April.
    9. Bodo Sturm & Joachim Weimann, 2006. "Experiments in Environmental Economics and Some Close Relatives," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 419-457, July.
    10. Grüner, Hans Peter & Muller, Daniel, 2016. "Measuring political information rents: Evidence from the European agricultural reform," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 107-126.
    11. Stephanie Simpson & Brid Gleeson Hanna, 2010. "Willingness to pay for a clear night sky: use of the contingent valuation method," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(11), pages 1095-1103.
    12. Bruno S. Frey & Simon Luechinger & Alois Stutzer, 2007. "Calculating Tragedy: Assessing The Costs Of Terrorism," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 1-24, February.
    13. Richard Carson & Nicholas Flores & Norman Meade, 2001. "Contingent Valuation: Controversies and Evidence," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 19(2), pages 173-210, June.
    14. Richard T. Carson, 2011. "Contingent Valuation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2489.
    15. Caffey, Rex H. & Wang, Hua & Petrolia, Daniel R., 2014. "Trajectory economics: Assessing the flow of ecosystem services from coastal restoration," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 74-84.
    16. John C. Whitehead, 2024. "They doth protest too much, methinks: Reply to “Reply to Whitehead”," Working Papers 24-04, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    17. Timothy C. Haab & Matthew G. Interis & Daniel R. Petrolia & John C. Whitehead, 2013. "From Hopeless to Curious? Thoughts on Hausman's 'Dubious to Hopeless' Critique of Contingent Valuation," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 35(4), pages 593-612.
    18. Banzhaf, H. Spencer, 2016. "Constructing markets: environmental economics and the contingent valuation controversy," MPRA Paper 78814, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. repec:ken:wpaper:0805 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. V. Smith & Xiaolong Zhang & Raymond Palmquist, 1997. "Marine Debris, Beach Quality, and Non-Market Values," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10(3), pages 223-247, October.
    21. Steenstra, Alex, 2009. "Accommodating Indigenous Cultural Values in Water Resource Management: The Waikato River, New Zealand; the Murray- Darling Basin, Australia; and the Colorado River, USA," 2009 Conference (53rd), February 11-13, 2009, Cairns, Australia 47937, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nbr:nberwo:5116. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.