ABSTRACT
Urban governments have increasingly become involved in encouraging and administering recycling programs. In the early 1990s the price paid for recyclable materials fell to the point that many of these government sponsored programs became money-losing efforts. Administrators of such programs have been forced to weigh the costs and benefits of operating them. Although the short-term costs of recycling are immediate and defined for a local community, many of the benefits of recycling are intangible and accrue over the long term (such as more efficient use of landfill space). The recycling issue is a classic social dilemma: As long as everyone else is recycling it makes little rational sense for an individual to make the effort to collect, store, and dispose of recyclables; yet, if everyone were to come to this conclusion, there would be negative consequences for all.
