Managing household waste in Ireland: behavioural parameters and policy options

Abstract

Formulating efficient waste management policy requires data on market conditions. Data on household waste management behaviour in Ireland is scarce, and policy making could benefit from improved data and market analysis. In this paper we estimate models of household waste management behaviour in Ireland using econometrics and simple comparison of average effects, but we find that some important parameters cannot be obtained robustly using existing aggregate data. Drawing upon international literature in order to complete our assumptions, we apply a simulation model to illustrate the likely effects of some current policy options. We show that increases in the landfill levy are likely to have little effect on household behaviour if pay-by-use tariffs are not fully implemented, and we find that while introducing additional bins for segregated compostable waste may divert significant quantities of such waste, they are more effective in cities than in rural areas. We also highlight key shortcomings of the available data.

Keywords:

• municipal solid waste
• household waste management
• Ireland

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Donal McCarthy and John McCambridge for excellent research assistance. They are also grateful to two anonymous referees, Richard Tol, Sue Scott and participants at the 2009 Irish Economic Association Conference for comments on an earlier draft. This research received support under the EPA STRIVE programme. The opinions contained within this paper are personal to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policy of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Notes

1. A bring bank is an unmanned, fixed receptacle for the deposit of non-hazardous dry recyclables.

2. Directive 1999/31/EC.

3. If supply-side policy options such as regulation of packaging or producer responsibility schemes were applied differently across geographical areas, this assumption might be invalidated, but there was no variation in such policies across our dataset.

4. See http://www.esri.ie/research/research_areas/environment/isus/ for full details and parameter values.

5. EPA (2008) compares the extension of volume-based charging and the landfill levy using a similar approach.

6. Strictly speaking, some households might stop purchasing collection services altogether to avoid paying higher fixed charges, but it seems likely that the access price elasticity for this service is low (and for this analysis we assume it is zero).