Ml. Miranda et Je. Aldy, UNIT PRICING OF RESIDENTIAL MUNICIPAL SOLID-WASTE - LESSONS FROM 9 CASE-STUDY COMMUNITIES, Journal of environmental management, 52(1), 1998, pp. 79-93
Communities across the US have implemented unit pricing of residential
solid waste, or pay-as-you-throw programs, as an innovative approach
to encourage significant waste reduction and diversion. This paper pro
vides an analysis of case studies from nine municipalities that employ
unit pricing for residential waste collection. The paper details the
economic theory underlying unit pricing, analyses how the various char
acteristics of the nine unit pricing programs affect program outcomes,
and frames unit pricing issues for further research. We find that com
munities experience decreases in annual residential waste landfilled a
nd incinerated after implementation of unit pricing. The communities w
ith larger decreases tend to have higher unit pricing fees and smaller
minimum container sizes for collection. Complementary programs, such
as recycling and yard waste collections, benefit under unit pricing, a
s households increase their diversion behaviour: We consider this imme
diate diversionary behaviour the first stage in a household's response
to a unit pricing program. After several years of experience with uni
t pricing, households enter a second stage where source reduction beha
viour becomes more apparent Unit pricing programs do appear to encoura
ge source reduction behaviour and concerns about undesirable diversion
do not appear to be well founded. These results may provide guidance
in statistical analyses of larger sets of unit pricing communities. (C
) 1998 Academic Press Limited.