An analysis of the effects of mandatory recycling on the household production of municipal solid waste

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:7070216

Capone, L P

The thesis explored in this study is that a local government's approach to achieving recycling of household solid waste affects that household production of both recyclable and non-recyclable solid waste. A household production function is used as the theoretical framework of the thesis. A household faced with mandatory recycling has two main decisions: (1) how much recyclable solid waste to generate, and (2) how much of the recyclable waste to recycle. The decision of how much recyclable solid waste to generate depends not only on the household's level of consumption of solid-waste-generating goods, but on the amount of household labor used for consumption of the goods. The decision of how much of their household solid waste to recycle depends on how much recyclable solid waste the household generates, costs of recycling and not recycling, and the social conscience of the household. The theoretical model's hypotheses are tested empirically using municipal data from New Jersey. 420 municipalities were surveyed on their recycling policies. Conclusions are drawn about the effectiveness of current policies and suggests improvements.

• Research Organization: State Univ. of New York, Binghamton, NY (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7070216
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320604* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Municipalities & Community Systems-- Municipal Waste Management-- (1980-)
DECISION MAKING
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
HOUSEHOLDS
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
MANAGEMENT
MINIMIZATION
MUNICIPAL WASTES
NEW JERSEY
NORTH AMERICA
PRODUCTION
RECYCLING
SOLID WASTES
USA
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES