Explaining the Growth in Municipal Recycling Programs: The Role of Market and Non-Market Factors

The implementation of thousands of municipal recycling programs in the United States has increased recycling’s portion of solid waste from 10% to 30% over the past decade. But the lack of accurate data has spurred a debate over whether the growth in recycling can be attributed to market or nonmarket factors. To address this issue, this article conducts a benefit-cost analysis of a municipal recycling program. Results suggest recycling is costly. So why, then, does it remain popular? This article suggests that local governments could be responding to households that perceive a benefit from recycling services. These benefits are estimated with a contingent valuation survey.

A Community Analysis of the Implementation for Household Curbside Recycling Programs: A Diversionary Method to Control Municipal Solid Waste

The Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) is required to better manage, operate and control municipal solid waste (MSW) after the Anchorage Assembly instituted a Zero Waste Policy. Two household curbside recycling programs (CRPs), pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) and single-stream, were compared and evaluated to determine an optimal municipal solid waste diversion method for households within the MOA. The analyses find: (1) a CRP must be designed from comprehensive analysis, models and data correlation that combine demographic and psychographic variables; and (2) CRPs can be easily adjusted towards community-specific goals using technology, such as Geographic Information System (GIS) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Combining resources of policy-makers, businesses, and other viable actors are necessary components to produce a sustainable, economically viable curbside recycling program.

A planning guide for residential recycling programs in Illinois : drop-off, curbside, yard waste /

"Printed: January 1988."

Comparative Anylysis of Recyling Programs: A Case Study of Three Universities

Abstract The goal of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of three university recycling programs. This study looked at several aspects of the programs that included the diversion rates, per capita ratios of materials recycled and disposed, and the average net costs of waste disposal and waste diversion. The universities included in this study were the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Oregon. To gather the information necessary for this analysis, I contacted each of the university’s recycling coordinators. To determine the average net costs of waste disposal and waste diversion I requested both the recycling budget and solid waste budget from each university for the fiscal years of interest which included: 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009. To calculate the diversion rates and per capita ratios, I requested performance records from each university listing the tonnage of materials recycled and disposed for the same years. This study’s findings reported that the average net costs for waste diversion in all three universities were $22-$122 less per ton than costs for waste collection and disposal. This study also indicated that the universities with the highest diversion and recycling rates were the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Oregon. The university with the lowest waste generated per capita was the University of Oregon followed by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The Costs of Municipal Curbside Recycling and Waste Collection

This paper estimates cost functions for both municipal solid waste collection and disposal services and curbside recycling programs. Cost data are obtained from a national survey of randomly selected municipalities. Results suggest, perhaps unsurprisingly, that both marginal and average costs of recycling systems exceed those of waste collection and disposal systems. Economies of scale are estimated for all observed quantities of waste collection and disposal. Economies of scale for recycling disappear at high levels of recycling - marginal and average cost curves for recycling take on the usual U-shape. Waste and recycling costs are also estimated as functions of factor costs and program attributes.

Determining the Socially Optimal Recycling Rate

What municipal recycling rate is socially optimal? One credible answer would consider the recycling rate that minimizes the overall social costs of managing municipal waste. Such social costs are comprised of all budgetary costs and revenues associated with operating municipal waste and recycling programs, all costs to recycling households associated with preparing and storing recyclable materials for collection, all external disposal costs associated with waste disposed at landfills or incinerators, and all external benefits associated with the provision of recycled materials that foster environmentally efficient production processes. This paper discusses how to estimate these four components of social cost to then estimate the optimal recycling rate. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reducing and recycling mercury switch thermostats and vehicle components : a report to Governor Blagojevich and the Illinois General Assembly.

Over the last two years, Governor Blagojevich and the Illinois General Assembly have enacted a number of laws to reduce the health risks associated with the use and disposal of consumer, household and commercial products that contain mercury. These products include thermometers, switches, electrical relays and scientific instruments used in schools. The purpose of these laws is to reduce mercury releases into the environment. Mercury is a strong neurotoxin that can be harmful to the health of humans and wildlife. Mercury exposure poses a particular risk to young children and pregnant women because mercury may inhibit the development of the brain and nervous system. This report presents recommendations for improving efforts to reduce and recycle mercury components that are found in thermostats and motor vehicles. Illinois EPA prepared the report in response to Public Act 93-0964. In drafting the report, Illinois EPA conducted research on mercury reduction and recycling programs in other states, reviewed technical studies and consulted with officials in the private and public sectors.

Educação ambiental nas escolas da região de Ribeirão Preto (SP): concepções orientadoras da prática docente e reflexões sobre a formação inicial de professores de química

During short courses, 95 secondary school teachers from 49 state schools and 421 students from the Ribeirão Preto region (in Sao Paulo state, Brazil, with a population of 530,000) were asked to fill in different questionnaires. The points raised in the teacher's questionnaire were used as a guide to establish a continuous dialogue during the short courses. Most of the schools claimed to have some kind of environmental education (EE). Based on the questionnaires and dialogues we analyzed how the teachers' perceptions on EE reflect on the views secondary students hold about their own responsibility for preserving the environment. The role of universities in the preparation of chemistry teachers capable of effectively approaching EE is also discussed.

Um panorama sobre a abordagem ambiental no currículo de cursos de formação inicial de professores de química da região sudeste

This work analysed the contents of 701 disciplines from 22 chemistry courses that prepare chemistry teachers in 16 public Universities in Southeastern Brazil. Only a small number (23) of disciplines showed an explicit relationship between human activities and the environment. A total of 11 theoretical and 193 experimental disciplines explored to some extent scientific and technological aspects related to the environment, but did not include their relationship with society. As the experimental disciplines supposedly include some kind of waste treatment, this may explain why secondary school chemistry teachers work mainly on recycling programs and waste issues at their schools. The aim of this work is to provide information on which to base a much needed discussion about how to better prepare our chemistry teachers to act as Environmental Educators at school, as the Brazilian Education Legislation requires.

Cidadania ambiental em centros urbanos : um estudo com estudantes do ensino superior

This work presents a study of the ambient management in urban centers, considering the ambient perception as element necessary to develop in the population the conscience of the necessity to preserve the environment. For this, the attitudes and behaviors of the community, represented for students of an Institution had been evaluated, so that strategies and actions are traced that come to minimize the ambient degradation and to provide an aggregate sustainable development to the economic development. The objective of this research consists of studying the problematic one of the ambient management in urban centers under the point of view of the awareness, of the ambient perception and of the participation of the population, this because the ambient questions are inserted in the aspects that involve the practical life and the daily one, for what becomes excellent to understand that the environment is a right of all, therefore, must be preserved. The methodology used in this work constitutes in the application of a questionnaire with scales of the type likert contends variables that compose the acts and mannering aspects, beyond a partner-demographic scale. The Chi-square method was used in the analysis statistics de Pearson to verify the dependence of the associations between the partner-demographic 0 variable and the acts and mannering variables. The results point that the academic environment is opportune to deal with the subject, in view of that the ambient preservation goes for all the contents, and that the pupils of today will be able, in the future, in its areas of performance to plan action to safeguard the sustainable development. One concludes that the strategies to manage the environment pass for the awareness of the citizen, therefore when it is educated its attitudes will be more responsible, a time that the ambient concern will be present in its day-by-day. Therefore, the Public Power when planning programs of ambient preservation that comes to promote changes of habits of the population, such as: management of the solid residues generated by the population, recycling, programs of selective collections, ambient education, etc. the local community for the success of its actions will have to be involved

Central America: management of used lubricants in Central America: final report

Includes bibliography

Programas de minimização de resíduos em instituições públicas de ensino superior: a coleta seletiva da UNESP - Campus Rio Claro (SP)

Pós-graduação em Geografia - IGCE

Análise das centrais de triagem do programa de coleta seletiva da cidade de São Paulo - SP

Among numerous studies about the selective collection of solid waste and cooperatives of recyclable materials, this research aims to contribute with the study of these problems from the geographic space. As the world population increases, the issue of solid waste becomes increasingly worrying, due to new consumption patterns that create larger amounts of waste, especially in the urban centers. The recycling appears to be the best solution for this problem since most materials that are currently sent to landfills would become raw material for new products. The Triage Centers performs an important role in this process because they are responsible for sorting, packing and selling the materials arising from the selective collect, so it is necessary to analyze the places where these steps are performed. This study intend to examine the location and distribution of these enterprises in the city of São Paulo in order to provide support for the mitigation of impacts, both environmental and social, from their location, as well as provide support for the expansion of selective collection program in the city. The choice for studying this area was due to the curiosity of investigating the inefficiency of the recycling program in the city of São Paulo, which currently recycles about 1% of all household solid waste collected. Therefore, from a historical survey of the city's recycling programs, technical visits, interviews with responsible agencies and also analysis of the Triage Center's frameworks based on the guidelines from the municipal legislation, it will be evaluated the problems faced by the program for its expansion

Gestão de resíduos sólidos domiciliares orgânicos: práticas e técnicas para a destinação final na cidade de Rio Claro - SP

The present work is the analysis of the practices and techniques currently used in the final allocation given to organic household solid waste in the city of Rio Claro - SP. As the major part of Rio Claro’s household solid waste is formed by the organic fraction, as well as in the rest of the country, this research proposes a study on what is done with that portion of the waste, its treatment and where finally destined, based on the National Solid Waste Politic, recently approved in 2010. With the use of this organic part, for example: as animal feed supplement or compost embodiment for the purpose of producing organic fertilizer, enables the decrease of the percentage of the total destined to dumps and landfills. This total percentage has already been reduced after the popularization of the beneficial recycling programs in Brazil, which are still growing. As cities and the purchasing power of its individuals grow, there is also a consequent growth of waste production by society. The household whether domestic solid waste are lower than Industrial Solid ( RSI ) waste for the production in million tons ( Mton ) quantities , however, those residues are more visible on a daily basis - in cities and periphery as well, due to the inadequate management, - and also offer , as well as industrial and agricultural wastes , several types of harmful effects to the population when managed incorrectly. Therefore, the research aims to assist in the study of Solid Waste Management (MSW) for efficient Urban and Environmental Planning in a midsize city. Thus, this project aims to analyze in the city of Rio Claro, how the allocation of these materials is done and whether these practices denote effective improvement regarding the proper management of waste, in the same way that the recycling chain would allow this effect

Why do Municipalities Recycle?

The disposal of municipal solid waste is believed to emit foul odor, threaten groundwater, and increase road congestion. As remote regional landfills have replaced local town dumps, these costs are no longer internalized by garbage-producing households or their municipalities. Instead, rural property owners located adjacent to large regional landfills and along the roadways accessing those landfills bear the external costs of garbage disposal. This paper uses a comprehensive nine-year panel data set of aggregated state data to empirically examine why 8,937 municipalities continue to operate costly recycling programs designed to reduce the external costs of garbage disposal. Results suggest that local tastes for recycling drive municipal decisions. If household preferences for recycling are short lived, then we can expect a future decrease in the number of municipal recycling programs. Recent data indicate the number of recycling programs in operation in the U.S. has indeed fallen.