Non-market value of waste separation from municipal perspective
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Waste separation and municipal waste management in general represent public services that typically do not generate profit. While in case of residual waste management usually exist some fees or charges aimed to cover at least partially the expenses, there are hardly ever specific fees for waste separation. A question then arises, whether it is worth from economical perspective to separate municipal waste, as it brings additional costs to the municipality while the associated revenues are typically rather marginal. In this paper we propose a model that aims to include not just direct financial benefits from municipal waste separation, but also its non-market value. This value is estimated using a simplified Travel Cost Method. We calculate non-market benefits of the waste separation based on the time that people spent engaging in this activity. Proposed model is demonstrated on a sample of municipalities. Results suggest that once non-market benefits of municipal waste separation are included, for majority of the municipalities waste separation becomes economically profitable. Without including non-market benefits, only smaller part of the municipalities was able to cover expenditures on waste separation from the associated revenues. |
| Related projects: |