ABSTRACT
Nothing is more essential to the understanding of the socioeconomics of littering, waste disposal and environmental pollution than to realize that consumer and producer decision makers only discard items of zero or negative net value, i.e., “bads”. Furthermore, a vast number of producer and consumer goods leave an undesirable residue or container after use, or emit such residues as joint products in the process of consumption or use. After eating a banana, there is the peeling; after consuming beer, milk or coca cola, there is the container; when an automobile is worn out one is left with as much as two tons of junk; and a hearth fire, or the generation of electricity from fuel combustion must inevitably produce smoke. It is in the individual self-interest, usually, to heave the banana peel or beer can out the window, to abandon the old car on the parkway, and let the smoke go up the chimney.
