ABSTRACT
The free market environmental approach requires that liability for the waste be assigned so that garbage producers or dischargers must pay for emissions. The garbage may not be pleasant to either the household or the landfill owner, but it is not pollution, because the generator of the waste must compensate the garbage hauler and the owner of the waste disposal site, who willingly accept responsibility for the garbage. The pollution has reduced aesthetic and recreational values in United States coastal waters, where recreational areas are frequently closed for swimming, fish are banned for human consumption, and beaches are cluttered with garbage and petroleum. The study examines four pollution control policies: least cost, uniform treatment, single effluent charge, and zone effluent charge. The two alternative strategies have the potential to improve the situation: effluent charges and tradeable pollution permits. A complete free market solution to the pollution problem would require property rights to the disposal medium.
