The market for residential solid waste management and disposal has experienced dramatic changes over the past 20 years. This collection of outstanding published research examines these changes and thoroughly analyzes the strategies popularized by municipal governments over the past two decades. Kerbside recycling, unheard of in the 1970s, is currently available to 46% of Americans. Thousands of towns across the nation have also implemented user fees requiring households to pay a fee for every bag of garbage they generate. These policy shifts have attracted the attention of environmental economists interested in knowing the best strategy for managing solid waste. The editors, both long-time scholars of these trends, offer theoretical solutions for the optimal pricing of garbage and recycling collection. They provide original data collection and suggest appropriate econometric techniques that correct for statistical biases. A policy focus provides information relevant to municipal governments as well as researchers. This excellent volume will be useful for policymakers, students and scholars in environmental economics.

The significant challenges associated with managing waste continue to attract international scholarly attention. This international Handbook scrutinizes both developed and developing economies. It comprises original contributions from many of the most prominent scholars researching this topic. Consisting primarily of empirical research efforts - although theoretical underpinnings are also explored thoroughly - the Handbook serves to further the understanding of the behaviors of waste generators and waste processors and the array of policies influencing these behaviors.The Handbook reveals how, broadly speaking, research in the area of waste management appears to be motivated by two sources of intellectual curiosity. First is the attempt to directly or indirectly inform our understanding of the development of solid waste policy. Economic incentives, including advanced disposal fees, recycling subsidies, unit-based pricing programs, and landfill taxes, appear commonly across developed countries, and understanding how effective these policies are at diverting waste is examined carefully in the Handbook. Second, other economists are motivated to study solid waste management decisions as an avenue to understanding how incentives and norms affect individual behavior. The blossoming area of behavioral economics is especially appropriate for application to solid waste management decisions, and the Handbook contains new research contributions that add to this expanding literature. Readership will be broad including academic economists researching waste issues and researchers specializing in waste management and more widely in environmental policy, behavioral economics, and public economics. International policymakers engaged in waste management decisions will find the work enlightening. Contributors: A. Abbott, G. Abrate, A. Bucciol, S. Das, E. Dijkgraaf, Fabrizio Erbetta, I. Ferrara, G. Fraquelli, R. Gradus, J.M. Halstead, E.B. Hosoda, J-C. Huang, D. Ichinose, S. MacBride, S. Matsumoto, M. Mazzanti, P. Missios, N. Montinari, A. Montini, S. Nandeibam, D. Numata, L. O'Shea, M. Piovesan, N. Prasad, T. Sasao, T. Shinkuma, H. Sugeta, D. Vannoni, C. Wright, M. Yamamoto, H-F. Yokoo, Y. Yoshida,