An Economic Analysis of Mixing Wastes

Abstract

Using a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous waste, this paper studies optimal waste policy when households have to exert separation effort to produce nearhomogeneous waste streams suitable for recycling. Our model explicitly allows for changes in the composition (quality) of waste streams depending on how much effort households are willing to spend on separating different types of waste. Accordingly, we are able to generalize some earlier contributions to the waste management literature and demonstrate that with both mixing and effort included, a first-best optimum is feasible under reasonable conditions. In particular, we find that a (modified) depositrefund system still provides the optimal incentives to guide recycling as well as legal disposal (landfilling) and illegal dumping. Both the number and level of taxes and subsidies needed to reach the first-best depend crucially on the socially optimal level of dumping as well as the socially optimal composition of the mix.

Waste management regulation: policy solutions and policy shortcomings

“…4 'Green design' can refer to the disassembly properties, weight, material mix and, as in this paper, the packaging design. 5 Aalbers and Vollebergh (2008) model households as having to exert a separation effort to produce near-homogeneous waste streams suitable for recycling but do not incorporate design improvements into their model. They conclude that a deposit-refund system provides optimal incentives for recycling and legal waste disposal.…”

An Analysis of Sorting and Recycling of Household Waste: A neo‐Ricardian Approach

“…Another interesting extension of this line of analysis is made by Aalbers and Vollebergh (), who deal with the case in which different types of waste are sorted by households but may possibly be mixed. They demonstrate that a deposit‐refund system realizes the optimal allocation of resources, confirming that the result of the preceding research can be applied to this extended model.…”

Post-Consumer Waste Recycling and Optimal Production

“…Household waste consists of a wide variety of waste products such as paper, glass, organic waste, plastics, textiles, and small chemical waste. In order to recycle waste, households are required to separate part of their heterogeneous waste into homogeneous streams (Aalbers and Vollebergh 2008). Additionally, they have to wash and store recyclables at home before taking them to collection sites on designated collection days.…”