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Garbage In and Garbage Out? On Waste Havens in Switzerland

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  • Tobias Erhardt

    (University of Basel)

Abstract

This study investigates whether the introduction of a unit-based garbage fee induces waste dumping in nearby communities which do not implement such a policy. To identify the existence of a “waste haven effect”, I hypothesize that the likelihood of “importing” or “exporting” waste depends on the distance to municipalities which have chosen the alternative policy option. Distances between municipalities are captured by routing data. I find some evidence for waste havens in a cross-section of Swiss municipalities. Exploiting variation in waste policy over time in a panel dataset for the canton of Ticino, I find that a decrease in distance is associated with an increase in the amount of waste collected by non-unit-pricing municipalities. The effect size is relatively small: An increase by one standard deviation in the impact factor applied to identify the waste haven effect increases the amount of collected waste per capita in non-unit-pricing municipalities by less than 3%.

Suggested Citation

  • Tobias Erhardt, 2019. "Garbage In and Garbage Out? On Waste Havens in Switzerland," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(1), pages 251-282, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:73:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s10640-018-0260-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-018-0260-x
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    Cited by:

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    3. Elbert Dijkgraaf & Raymond Gradus, 2020. "Post-collection Separation of Plastic Waste: Better for the Environment and Lower Collection Costs?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 77(1), pages 127-142, September.
    4. Elbert Dijkgraaf & Raymond Gradus, 2021. "Are Bottle Banks Sufficiently Effective for Increasing Glass Recycling Rates?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-11, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Municipal solid waste dumping; Spillovers; Waste havens;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment

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