An Economic Analysis of Household Recycling of Solid Wastes: The Case of Portland, Oregon

Solid waste is one of the residuals generated by economic activities. Faced with rising disposal costs, communities are implementing programs to encourage recycling activities. This paper investigates the role of price incentives and other socio-economic factors in household recycling. Participation in recycling is modeled as an ordered probit choice using a large sample of households from the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. Demand for solid waste collection is estimated using two-stage least squares. Results indicate that increases in disposal fees encourage recycling, although demand for solid waste collection services is not reduced substantially.