A Post-Consumer Waste Management Model for Determining Optimal Levels of Recycling and Landfilling

The present study examines the optimal recycling rate for municipal solid waste. First, an optimal control model is developed to account for the physical costs of recycling, the social costs of landfilling, and consumers' environmental preferences. Second, an optimal solution is simulated using waste disposal data from the Helsinki region in Finland. The benefits from recycling are included in the simulation using the results of a recent contingent valuation study. The results of the present research suggest that mandates for achieving 50% recycling in municipalities are not far-fetched and are both economically and environmentally justified.     

废旧手机回收管理国际经验及对我国的启示

随着经济发展和技术进步,手机普及率日益提高,更新换代速度也越来越快,手机销售量和废旧手机产生量都急剧增加。首先梳理了我国涉及废旧手机管理的相关政策法规,并分析了废旧手机回收处理的现状和存在的问题。然后,借鉴欧盟、美国、日本、韩国等发达国家和地区,及国际组织在废旧手机管理和回收处理方面的经验,从法律政策、生产者责任延伸制度、回收处理体系和环保意识等方面提出了相应的改进建议,以便为废旧手机等小型电子废弃物的管理提供理论依据。     

Economic Incentives and Residential Waste Management in Taiwan: An Empirical Investigation

This paper presents an empirical study of how three waste management policies have affected residential waste generation and recycling behavior in Taiwan over the past decade. The three policies are unit-pricing of garbage in Taipei, a mandatory recycling program in Kaohsiung, and a nationwide policy of charging for plastic bags. We estimate policy effects on total waste, total recycling, and recycling of four specific materials, all measured by weight per capita. Unlike prior work, we find that unit-pricing and mandatory recycling policies lead to significant increases in recycling of most materials, as well as increased levels of total recycling and garbage reduction. The “plastic bag” policy is generally found to lower material-specific and total recycling rates, as well as total garbage volumes.     

A Comparison of Household Recycling Behaviors in Norway and the United States

This paper investigates empirically the determinants of household recycling in Norway and compares the results with a similar, recently published, study of households in the United States. The comparison focuses on the relative importance of user fees on waste disposal, community recycling programs, and socioeconomic factors. Both data sources are nationwide, material-specific, and at the household level. One major finding is that a disposal fee provides a significant economic incentive to Norwegian households, whereas its effectiveness in the United States is still up for debate. Providing households with convenient recycling options, such as curbside and drop-off recycling, appears generally effective, but less so in Norway than in the United States. Socioeconomic characteristics are less important predictors of behavior in Norway than in the United States. Qualifications on the comparison are provided throughout and two extensions for future research are suggested at the end.     

城市典型废弃物循环利用体系建设——日本的实践与启示

日本是循环经济管理理念和发展水平较为领先的国家之一,也是我国发展循环经济的一个重要借鉴和国际合作对象.文章从立法、全流程管理、分类管理和市场机制四个方面,系统而扼要地介绍了日本建设城市典型废弃物循环利用体系的主要做法和成效,包括:逐步推进建立和完善废弃物循环利用法律体系;结合责任分担制和延伸生产者责任制,实施全流程链条式管理;针对性地建立废弃物循环利用体系和处理方法,实现资源效用最大化;政府立法和规划引导,逐步形成以市场机制为主的废弃物循环利用体系.在此基础上,文章有针对性地提出了建立和完善我国城市典型废弃物循环利用体系的若干启示和建议,主要包括:理顺管理体制、完善现有体系、加大薄弱环节工作力度和调动利益相关者积极性四方面.     

Recycling and Waste Diversion Effectiveness: Evidence from Canada

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between recycling policy options and recycling behavior to study the most effective methods of diverting post-consumer waste from landfills. We employ data from a unique, micro-data set collected from households in communities across Ontario, Canada. We estimate the relationships between several commonly recycled materials (newsprint, glass, plastics, aluminum cans, tin cans, cardboard, and toxic chemicals) and individual household characteristics, recycling program attributes, and garbage collection financing methods. We find that user fees on garbage collection have significant impacts on recycling levels for all materials except toxic chemicals, and mandatory recycling programs on particular items have significant effects on recycling for almost all materials. Limits on the amount of garbage that can be placed at the curb, and providing free units under user fee systems, however, generally have a negligible or detrimental impact on recycling.JEL classification: D10, H23, Q28     

论我国电子废弃物资源化障碍的产生及其原因

我国电子废弃物资源化产业目前还比较薄弱,而电子废弃物的产生高峰已到来。目前我国电子废弃物的总体情况是数量庞大,由于政治、经济、文化等原因,使我国的电子废弃物回收率很低,无法实现电子废弃物回收的产业化、规模化。其中,我国的传统管理体制、粗放型经济增长方式以及大众的传统消费观念、消费意识等都是制约我国实现电子废弃物资源化的重要原因。整体而言,目前我国电子废弃物资源化的状况并不理想,需要更进一步完善。     

浅析国外电子废弃物立法对我国的启示

当今时代是信息化时代。伴随着电子工业和信息高科技产业的高速发展,电子电器产品已经成为现代生活中不可缺少的部分,而随着电子信息产品更新换代的日益频繁,如何处理废弃的电子电器产品已经引起了人们的关注。     

瑞典核废料管理经验与启示

瑞典的核废料处置技术和管理模式都处于世界领先之列,特别是乏燃料最终处置计划更是其他各国效仿的对象.文章在对瑞典核废料处置情况作简要概述之后,重点分析了瑞典核废料管理的经验.完善的规划与系统、绝对安全的理念与要求、公众的全程参与和对话,建构了一个特色鲜明的瑞典模式,给我国核废料处置和管理带来很多有价值的启示.     

Adopting a Unit Pricing System for Municipal Solid Waste: Policy and Socio-Economic Determinants

Concerns about the environmental and aesthetic damages of municipal solid waste pollution have triggered policy reform at all levels of government. As part of this effort, public officials are integrating market-based policy instruments such as unit pricing into their solid waste plans. Despite the economic advantages of unit pricing, constituency response has been mixed and hence adoption rates have been below expectations. If the associated gains are to be realized, public officials must identify the key factors that influence this decision. To that end, this research empirically estimates the determinants of unit pricing adoption at the community level of analysis. Based on data for all cities and towns in Massachusetts, the results indicate that demographics, socio-economic attributes, fiscal capacity, and policy instruments influence this decision.     

Resource and Waste Taxation in the Theory of the Firm with Recycling Activities

The management of solid waste has become an urgent problem in nations with a great population density. Accordingly, waste reduction through source reduction and recycling has become increasingly important. Our purpose is to show how prevention, recycling and disposal of waste could be part of a theory of the firm. We first derive efficient production functions from production processes with waste as a by-product. Waste obtained as new scrap can partially be recycled by using additional inputs in order to cut back the purchase of virgin material. Waste not completely recyclable will leave the firm as disposal which also entails cost to the firm. We use the dual cost function approach to develop a theory of the firm under solid residual management.Since the producer does not bear the full cost of disposal, there will be a bias toward virgin materials and away from recycling. The goal of the government is to stimulate the firms to recycle with respect to the preservation of exhaustible resources. An incentive to recycle is a tax on resources or on waste. In order to determine the tax levels the government maximizes welfare subject to the dynamic constraint for decumulation of land fill for waste deposits. This gives the user cost and its time profile for taxing waste disposal or virgin material.In a comparative statics analysis we compare the effect of taxes on waste vs. virgin material on effort to produce in a resource saving manner, on the quantity of recycled material, on output, and on the reduction of waste. Since the impact of environmental regulation on employment is important, our model detects seven effects on labor demand as part of resource conservation policy. We finally carry out a comparative statics analysis of waste intensive firms operating in different market structures. Of interest is the impact of a resource or waste taxation on market volume, on the number of firms, on resource saving effort, and on profit.     

美国出台新的核废物处置战略

2013年1月,美国能源部发布《乏燃料及高放废物管理的处置战略》。通过对新出台的核废物处置战略的系统设计和组织实施的要素及面临的挑战进行分析,得出如下结论：该战略力图解决高放废物的处置这一世界性课题,并提出了三步走目标,其实施的关键在于同意制选址机制的确立和运行、相关资金机制的改革、建立专门的新的核废物管理和处置机构、以及美国国会给予新的立法授权等。此外,公众的理解和支持也至关重要。美国处置核废物战略对我国开展核废物处置及相关选址工作有一定启迪。     

Social Norms,Morals and Self-interest as Determinants of Pro-environment Behaviours: The Case of Household Recycling

This paper considers the role which selfish, moral and social incentives and pressures play in explaining the extent to which stated choices over pro-environment behaviours vary across individuals. The empirical context is choices over household waste contracts and recycling actions in Poland. A theoretical model is used to show how cost-based motives and the desire for a positive self and social image combine to determine the utility from alternative choices of recycling behaviour. We then describe a discrete choice experiment designed to empirically investigate the effects such drivers have on stated choices. A hybrid logit model is used to link statements over attitudes to recycling to choices, dealing with a potential endogeneity problem caused by the joint effects of un-observables on attitudes and choices. We find that a substantial share of our respondents prefer to sort their waste at home rather than in a central sorting facility. This preference is associated with a moral/intrinsic motivation, involving a belief that sorting at home is more thorough than central sorting.     

从“生废”走向“消废”——生态文明建设中城市垃圾处理的路径选择

人类为了生存和发展,始终离不开物质资料的生产和消费。但从生态文明视角来看,无论是生产还是消费,人类都无法摆脱生废问题,而生产和消费带来的与日俱增的垃圾围城正日益成为困扰城市生态文明建设的重大问题之一。如何从生废走向消废是城市生态文明建设的一个重要内容。在分析当前我国城市垃圾处理存在困境的同时,借鉴德国垃圾处理的成功经验,指出垃圾处理的减量化、无害化和资源化将成为垃圾处理的一种必然趋势;垃圾要分类,资源要回收势在必行,为促进城市的生态文明建设,我国城市垃圾处理的路径选择在具体的制度安排上应体现为源头减量化、处理无害化和利用资源化。     

国外治理"三废"新技术概述

治理废气、废水和废物是建立友好型环境、发展生态经济的前提。为了确保社会可持续发展,世界各国都十分重视治理三废问题,投入了大量资金和科研力量,探索新技术、新方法,涌现出了大量新成果。     

The Relationship between Waste Paper and Other Inputs in the Swedish Paper Industry

A number of life-cycle assessment studies havecompared the environmental impacts of materialrecycling and incineration of waste paper. Theyhave shown that, in most cases, a recyclingscenario results in lower total energy use, butgreater use of fossil fuels. If waste paper andfossil fuels are complements, parts of theenvironmental argument for recycling isabolished. This paper estimates a cost functionfor the Swedish paper industry. If the costshares are co-integrated, an error correctionmodel will be used to model the dynamics.Short- and long-run elasticities are thencalculated to address the relationship betweenwaste paper and the other inputs: capital,labor, purchased pulp, fiber, fossil fuels andelectricity. Contrary to the life-cycleassessment studies, the results show that wastepaper and fossil fuels are substitutes, andthat waste paper and electricity arecomplements.     

我国废纸循环利用的适度水平研究

废弃物循环利用的适度水平是构建循环经济的一个重要问题。以废纸的再利用为例,在界定废纸循环利用的社会效益与社会成本的基础上,综合运用生命周期分析方法与环境影响经济评估方法识别并货币化度量废纸循环利用的边际社会效益,构建了我国废纸循环利用的边际成本函数,进而分析我国废纸循环利用的适度水平。研究结果表明,2008年我国用废纸替代木材生产1吨纸浆的社会效益为14 037元,社会福利最大化下的废纸循环利用适度水平为60.1%,高于同期国内废纸循环利用的实际水平39.5%,适当提高现阶段我国废纸循环利用的水平可以增加整个社会的福利。     

公司经营者物质报酬、政治激励与经营绩效——基于国有控股上市公司的实证分析

本文选取中国国有上市公司为研究对象,重点研究国有上市公司经营者激励与公司绩效的相关性,并研究经营者升迁的决定因素对公司绩效的敏感性。研究发现在国有控股的企业中,董事长更多的关注政治激励,总经理更多的关心物质激励,当存在晋升机会时,政治激励、物质激励有一定的替代关系;年轻管理者的对公司绩效的作用往往主观地被低估,任期、政治关联、学历同晋升机会、公司绩效显著正相关,这意味着,上级对高级管理人员经营能力的判断时,应剔除高级管理人员个人特性对公司绩效的影响。     

Exploring Benefit Transfer: Disamenities of Waste Transfer Stations

The benefit transfer method was developed as an alternative way to value externalities using values from studies of similar circumstances, carried out at similar sites somewhere else, given the challenges and high costs inherent in assessing the actual cost. Specifically, in order to test the performance of the benefit transfer method, employing hedonic price models, this study focused on estimates of disamenities associated with waste transfer stations at four different cities in Israel. The sites were intentionally selected to represent a variety of circumstances. We transferred the estimated benefit function from a “study site” to a “policy site”. The goodness of fit was examined by comparing the calculated value, with actual data from the policy site. To test the sensitivity of the benefit transfer function to socioeconomic and housing characteristics, it was repeatedly applied to different sets of observations. The findings suggest that a relatively large number of alternative benefit functions are transferable. Statistical inequality outcome regarding the degree of similarity between samples does not unequivocally rule out the appropriateness of transferring environmental values across studies. Transfer errors varied between −21% and +29%, and the absolute average error for all transfers was 15.4%. Errors were lower for transfer between relatively similar cities in terms of size and location and between sub-samples that were similar in socioeconomic characteristics and housing type. However, when a site with very dissimilar data was involved, the average absolute error rose to 19%.