Since the late 1980s, waste management has witnessed quite dramatic changes throughout the world. One of the most pervasive trends has been the increase of household recycling of urban solid waste. Such increase is largely attributable to government policies aimed at reducing landfilled waste: curbside recycling programs, unit-pricing (“Pay-As-You-Throw") programs (bag/tag programs, weight-based systems, can programs) and/or, to a lesser extent, other pricing policies (deposit/refund systems, advance disposal fees, recycling subsidies).

Recent analyses maintain that recycling in developed countries, being mostly the result of costly policies, may be already above its socially optimal level. These analyses in fact underestimate such level if increasing recycling not only reduces residual waste, but also total waste. We find that this is the case: without monetary incentives (no unit-pricing), a 10% increase in recycling rate is associated with a 1.5-2% decrease of total urban waste. This effect is largely attributable to curbside collection programs, whose adoption increases recycling rates by 8.5-14% and reduces waste generation by about 4%.

This paper contributes to the literature on the relations between waste and recycling by providing estimates of the source reduction effect of recycling policies and pointing out the important role played in it by curbside collection programs.

Keywords: Environmental policy, Waste management, Waste reduction, Socially optimal recycling rate, Curbside collection. 

JEL Classification: C23, D61, R11, Q53.