ABSTRACT
A rapidly increasing number of cities and towns have already adopted pay-by-the-bag systems, selling households distinctive trash containers or stickers or tags to attach to their own containers. Providing curbside recycling options and special collection services for bulky household items has also increased the acceptability of the pay-by-the-bag system. Moving from a system in which households are charged nothing for each extra unit of trash set out for disposal to an appropriate pay-by-the-bag system should achieve net economic savings. Moreover, the revenues collected should be sufficient to finance the community's solid-waste collection and disposal services. In the 1970s and 1980s, collection costs represented two thirds to three fourths of the total market costs of municipal solid waste management. But the rapid rise of tipping fees has reduced the share of collection costs to 25 to 50 percent. Finding wastes neatly packed in uniform bags reduces collection costs and injuries, but households that overstuff bags with compacted wastes are a nuisance.
