| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 98 09:52 WET From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Economic Measures to Improve Recycling Rates (Susanna Fernandez-Rocha)
Dec. 10, 1998
Dear Susanna Fernandez-Rocha,
There are different economic measures to improve recycling appropriate to different political systems and to different economic systems. The most current one in the US at the present time is called PAYT or Pay As You Throw, program materials about which are available from the US EPA, either at its website (www.epa.gov) or the RCRA Hotline in Washington, DC.
The Northeast Recycling Council also has approached many issues involving different means of developing markets specific to the states of the northeastern US. Their headquarters is at Brattleboro, VT and they also have a website.
One could, of course, make recycling mandatory by law, and this has been the occasional local response or state response in the US and in entire nations of e.g. Europe. One could offer direct or indirect incentives, tax breaks to newly recycling companies engaging in meaningful recycling. The realm of incentives has been studied some time ago by a report by Mount Auburn Associates of Cambridge, MA, among others.
These are but a few possible responses.
- Research Library for RCRA