THE ECONOMICS OF HOUSEHOLD WASTE MANAGEMENT - A REVIEW

In recent years reducing the amount of waste generated by households h as become an important policy issue in industrialised economies. It is no longer acceptable to discard waste without concern for environment al and natural resource issues. In an effort to reduce household waste various policy instruments such as kerbside charges, deposit-refund s chemes, integrated sales tax exemptions and virgin material taxes, hav e been proposed and/or implemented. This article reviews the economics literature that has addressed household waste management. It is argue d that a comprehensive modelling framework is necessary if the complex policy environment is to be accurately described.