Economic Management of Municipal Solid Waste

Environment is a composite asset, which is scarce. It provides various services such as natural resource base needed in many production processes; amenity services used in recreational activities, waste assimilation sink and life support system. Therefore the objective of development is to minimise the undue depreciation of this environmental asset. Excessive municipal solid waste is one of those factors that will lead to the depreciation of this asset. Furthermore the municipal solid waste is characterized by small mass, low homogeneity, high contamination and availability in multiple locations. All these increases the cost of recycling and therefore reduces its profitability. This paper analyses the effectiveness, equity and acceptability principles of various policy instruments that uses a complementary nix of policies may be superior to using a single policy instrument in increasing the profitability of recycling municipal solid waste and thereby reducing the quantity of municipal solid waste dumped on to the environment