Importance Of Economic Incentives In Municipal Waste Management

Understanding Municipal Waste Management and Incentives

The municipal waste management refers to the decisions in which the government, local authorities and the private organizations reduce the amount of waste and to divert them towards recycling. There are different types of incentives, which can be used to reduce the amount of waste generated in the community. These incentives are command-and-control incentives, social-psychological incentives and economic incentives. The social-psychological and the economic incentives are important in waste minimization in the country.  Therefore, the government should develop a cyclic waste management and recycling system through which, it regulates, manages intervenes and facilitate the waste management practices in the community. The local government can influence the economy of the country through different policies such as laws, regulations and taxes (Struk, 2017). The government needs to align incentives to promote the waste management and recycling and reward waste management with prevention, reuse, recycling and composting. In the current times, the waste management has become one of the most significant issues due to the enormous amount of waste produced on a daily basis. Social organizations and government is forming policies so that they can design and manage the products so that they can eliminate the waste materials and conserve the natural resources. The current waste management practices are targeted at preventing waste emission by sustainable design and consumption.  In the present times, it is important to avoid and prevent waste production rather than waste treatment and disposal. Currently, waste prevention can be achieved through sustainable design, sustainable consumption practices and recovering resources from optimal resources. In the current practices of waste management, the government cannot aim for zero landfill and waste production goals, due to the current system of waste management practices.  Therefore, it is important to aim for a cyclic economy, wherein the waste is an intermediate stage of resource transformation and it should be used again.

The research aims and objectives provide purpose to the organization. The research aims should be concisely and clearly framed so that they can represent the intentions of the research:

• To explore the manner, in which the financial incentives can be integrated to the waste management
• To identify whether financial incentives can improve the recycling in waste management
• To explore the potential of recycling in waste management

According to (Campbell, Khachatryan, Behe, Hall and Dennis, 2016) recycling is an important concept in the waste management as it can foster waste reduction and waste prevention. In the waste management, the most significant incentive is taxation, fees and cost avoidance. In waste management, the primary cost is the preparation and adoption of the waste management tools and evaluating their outcomes.  However, there are also certain challenges in adopting cyclic waste management tools such as gaining acceptance from the existing waste and disposal industry.

Role of Social-Psychological and Economic Incentives in Waste Minimization

In the perspective of (Kinnaman, 2017), the economic incentives motivate the business organizations and the individuals to recycle and adopt recycling waste management practices. The decision to adopt the waste management practices is dependent upon different incentives and disincentives aligned with the decision. The government aims to increase the magnitude of diversion of waste towards recycling practices. The incentives encompass diverse financial and non-financial incentives, which can induce positive actions among the public. The disincentives include factors, which prevent the organization to follow a specific behavior such as penalties or fines. The economic incentives have two major objectives, firstly, it covers the cost and improve the service delivery experience in the organization, secondly, to motivate the people to reduce waste, reduce landfill and enhances the practices of resource recovery and recycling.

Tietenberg and Lewis, (2016) have critiqued that several of these financial incentives serve one or both purpose. However, economic instruments can never replace the control and command policies but it strengthen these policies. There are several characteristics of economic instruments such as it generates revenue for the public authorities and at the same time, it also creates incentives for changing behavior of the public. Subsidies and tax exemptions can motivate the companies or the employees to provide environmental services. There are other economic instruments such as permit or trading schemes for the waste or emission, which does not have direct financial incentives; however, it can support the system.

Zen, Noor and Yusuf (2014) there are several factors, which promote the integration of economic instruments in the sustainable waste management practices. The overall financial coat of the solid waste management practices are not known to the local authorities as different projects are allocated to different departments. If the government reduces the overall cost to the organization then it can enhance the efficiency of the waste management services.

Isenhour, Blackmer, Wagner, Silka and Peckenham (2016) have stated that in the recycling of the solid waste management, the local authorities focus on the investment cost and neglect the operation and the maintenance cost to the organization. The operation and the maintenance cost to the organization seem insignificant; however, it is highly significant in the long run.  Subsequently, it results in deterioration of services and equipment due to negligence from government. In this case, regular revenue from the economic instruments can provide a strategic approach, which can provide sustainability of the waste management.

Cyclic Waste Management System for Efficient Waste Management Practices

In the views of Porter and Kramer (2011) in the solid waste management, it is important to create waste collection, treatment and disposal infrastructure; however, it creates an additional cost, which is necessary to be met. The future revenue requirements of the organization can be addressed in the design of the economic instruments. While creating a resource-efficient solid waste management, the government should also focus on influencing the behavior of the waste producers in the community. The waste management companies and the local authorities also require incentive to adopt more efficient waste management systems. The waste management tactics should be environmentally friendly and resource efficient. There are several instruments such as tax exemptions or subsidies, which pro vides incentives for setting up the solid waste management business.

In the perspective of Geng, Zhu, Doberstein and Fujita (2009), there are several conditions, which are necessary for setting up the waste management economic instruments. The government and the local governing bodies should follow a strategic planning process to set up the waste management plan. The organizations should identify the cost-recovery opportunities and explore the economic instruments, which can assist in meeting the waste management objectives. The financial planning is also necessary in the development of sustainable strategy, required for taking financial decisions for the implementation of the plan.

In the perspective of Guerrero, Maas and Hogland (2013) Most of the times, the public resist and oppose the introduction of new fees for waste management practices. There should be political will to enhance the transparency in the financial management of the services. The citizens lack the knowledge about environmental, social and economic cost of the waste management practices. Therefore, they oppose the introduction of new fees in the organization. However, the government agencies can reduce the opposition by providing comprehensive information about the introduced economic instruments. They should be acknowledged about the fairness in the economic instruments and how these charges will increase the quality of service. The government agencies can introduce additional funds and subsidies to support the waste management practices in the local community. These special funds can be introduced as grants, subsidies and special interest loans to the private and the public organizations. The grants and favors should provide resource-efficient waste management practices. The access to the funds should focus on uplifting the position of the waste management practices; therefore, they should be based on non-competitive basis. There should be waste valorization infrastructure, in which the organization should favor waste reduction or sorting for providing grants. The companies should also provide funds to support research and technology development in the community. There should also be subsidies to support the private waste management practices in the organization. These organizations work at small-scale and conduct activities such as sorting, recycling and composting of waste management. The government can provide land or infrastructure so that these organizations can smoothly.

Challenges in Adopting Cyclic Waste Management Tools

Zaman and Lehmann, (2013) have discussed that another economic incentive is tax exemptions, which can be used to promote the recovery, sorting and recycling of the waste. The government agencies can exempt the recycling enterprises in their initial years of operations. Other than that, they might be allowed to pay a less amount of tax. The tax exemptions have the same effect as the government subsidies. However, they do not provide direct revenue; however, they reduce the expenses.

According to Song, Li and Zeng (2015) these tax exemptions can be applied to the customer duties, while importing the equipment for waste management. The aim of this exemption should be to facilitate the investment in the waste management infrastructure and reducing the investment risk. The organization can provide tax exemptions to those business organizations, which have adopted the recycled waste management practices. The government should analyze the subsidies regarding the tax rebates and different regulatory requirements, while applying these rebates. The production of the energy from the waste is significant achievement in the solid waste management practices. The organization should invest in the infrastructure to produce energy from the waste. There are various methods of producing energy from the waste such as biogas production and conversion, combustion of municipal solid waste, pyrolysis and gasification, which are used to decompose the waste. The regulations on tariffs for the energy can be used to promote this energy resource. The approach on investment in energy production can promote sustainable development of the community. It also increases the financial viability of the investment, which is important for the small-scale communities. There are specific reforms in the energy sectors, which can be used for promote the renewable energy resources. The concept-incentive based recycling is targeted to increase the recycling rates by providing a financial incentive to the people so that they take the trouble of sorting their garbage.

The philosophical approach refers to the approach of the researcher for completing the research process. Mainly, the research approach or the research paradigm can be differentiated in positivism and interpretivism. In the positivism research paradigm, it is considered that the researcher is different from the research process. It means that the research does not impact the outcomes of the research process. In the interpretivism approach, it is considered that the viewpoints of the researcher impacts on the research process. It states that the researcher and the research process are not different from each other. It is commonly used in the social research. The researchers experience and understand the social phenomenon and interpret them according to the personal perception. It is used to gain in-depth knowledge of the social phenomenon (Flick, 2015). In the present research, in-depth knowledge is required regarding the impact of financial incentives on the solid waste management methods.

Economic Incentives to Motivate Recycling and Adoption of Waste Management Practices

The research logic refers to the methods of reasoning, which are used to accomplish the research. The research logic can be categorized as deductive approach and the inductive approach. The deductive approach or logic is the process, in which the researcher takes general to specific approach. The deductive reasoning is also called “top-down” approach in which the researcher develops a theory, tests it and creates a hypothesis.

The inductive reasoning is another approach, in which the researcher takes a “bottom-up” approach. The inductive reasoning initiates with different observations and measures and ends with the development of theories (Mackey and Gass, 2015). The inductive reasoning is open-ended and exploratory in nature whereas deductive reasoning is focused on confirming the hypothesis.  In the current research, the researcher tries to conduct in-depth investigation about the impact of various financial incentives in the waste management process.

The research approach is the process through which, the research is conducted. There are three main research approaches, namely, descriptive research approach, explanatory research approach and exploratory research approach. The descriptive research approach is identifies the basic characteristics of the research and shows the careful compilation of the research facts and figures. The explanatory research tries to explain the social phenomenon and investigate the basic cause-effect relationship. These studies typically include the collection of empirical data for testing hypothesis (Panneerselvam, 2014). The exploratory research is focused on research approaches, in which the research questions are not developed properly. It is use, when the researcher tries to gain familiarity with a new concept or wants to acquire new insight into the research problem.

In the present research, the data collection method of interview is selected. It is a qualitative research method in which primary data in collected from the interviewees. The qualitative research method is the process in which qualitative information is collected. This information cannot be represented or analyzed from the statistical methods. In this method, the interviewer askes certain in-depth questions from the interviewee and gain valuable insight from them. There are three types of interview questionnaire, structured, semi-structured and unstructured. In the structured interview questionnaire, the questions of the interview are formed earlier. On the other hand, in the unstructured interview, the questions of the interview are not prearranged and the interviewer goes according to the direction of the research (Silverman, 2016). In the semi-structured interview, a basic direction of the interview is selected. The interview will be conducted with five executives, working in the government waste management department.

Characteristics and Objectives of Economic Instruments in Waste Management

In the present research, the data analysis will be conducted with the help of thematic analysis method. In this method, different themes are identified according to the responses of the research participants. It is a qualitative data analysis method, in which the researcher identifies, examines ad record patterns from the collected data. The themes refer to the patterns across the data, which describes the research phenomenon (Smith,  2015).  It is the most common and the easiest form to analyze the qualitative data.

The researcher has tried to complete the research on time; however, the researcher still found certain challenges in completing the research. Firstly, the research has to be completed in a small time frame. Other than that, the research has to conduct interview with different interviewees, which require time and efforts from the researcher.

The research is conducted to contribute to the scientific community; however, in order to gain trust of the scholars, it is important to conduct the research in an ethical manner. The researcher will correctly, reference the work whenever he will use external material. Other than that, the researcher will represent the findings in a clear and transparent manner (Taylor, Bogdan, and DeVault, 2015). The personal and the confidential information of the research participants will be protected by the researcher.

References

Campbell, B., Khachatryan, H., Behe, B., Hall, C. and Dennis, J., 2016. Crunch the can or throw the bottle? Effect of “bottle deposit laws” and municipal recycling programs. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 106, pp.98-109.

Flick, U., 2015. Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. London: Sage.

Geng, Y., Zhu, Q., Doberstein, B. and Fujita, T., 2009. Implementing China’s circular economy concept at the regional level: A review of progress in Dalian, China. Waste Management, 29(2), pp.996-1002.

Guerrero, L.A., Maas, G. and Hogland, W., 2013. Solid waste management challenges for cities in developing countries. Waste management, 33(1), pp.220-232.

Isenhour, C., Blackmer, T., Wagner, T., Silka, L. and Peckenham, J., 2016. Moving up the Waste Hierarchy in Maine: Learning from “Best Practice” State-Level Policy for Waste Reduction and Recovery. Maine Policy Review, 25(1), p.15.

Kinnaman, T.C., 2017. The economics of residential solid waste management. Routledge.

Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design. Abingdon: Routledge.

Panneerselvam, R., 2014. Research methodology. London: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

Porter, M.E. and Kramer, M.R., 2011. Creating shared value. In Managing Sustainable Business (pp. 327-350). Springer, Dordrecht.

Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. London: Sage.

Smith, J.A. ed., 2015. Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. London: Sage.

Song, Q., Li, J. and Zeng, X., 2015. Minimizing the increasing solid waste through zero waste strategy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 104, pp.199-210.

Struk, M., 2017. Distance and incentives matter: The separation of recyclable municipal waste. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 122, pp.155-162.

Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Tietenberg, T. H. and Lewis, L. 2016. Environmental and natural resource economics. Routledge.

Zaman, A.U. and Lehmann, S., 2013. The zero waste index: a performance measurement tool for waste management systems in a ‘zero waste city’. Journal of Cleaner Production, 50, pp.123-132.

Zen, I.S., Noor, Z.Z. and Yusuf, R.O., 2014. The profiles of household solid waste recyclers and non-recyclers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Habitat International, 42, pp.83-89.

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