Economic Incentives for a Zero Waste Economy
General New Rules
- Advance Disposal Fees
- Building deconstruction and C and D Requirements
- Container Deposit Legislation
- Disposal Surcharge
- Landfill Bans
- Mandatory Household and Commercial Recycling
- Minimum Content Legislation
- Pay As you Throw Requirements
- Procurement Preferences
- Product and Package Bans
- Recycling market development Zones
Specific Incentives
The goal of new incentive mechanisms is to motivate market forces in favor of prevention, reuse, recycling and composting. This means internalizing the cost of waste to the firm, and paying for the amount of waste that in generated. This approach recognizes waste as an inefficient aspect of our production, distribution and consumption economy. It allows cities and counties to harness the force of the market place to achieve zero waste goals. It should be noted that the recycling movement started when the economic signals DISCOURAGED zero waste and REINFORCED wasting. As new rules were enacted by citizen demand, recycling and composting became economically marginal. With a full panoply of new rules and policies, recycling and composting are now economically advantageous.
Cities and counties can build on the general new rules mentioned above to focus in on local requirements for doing business in their jurisdictions.
Key tools are: RFPs, Contracts, Rates, Ordinances, permits, redeemable bonds, product bans, SWM plans, zoning, policies and definitions.
Within these array of tools, contractor payment schedules (compensation structure), performance incentives and penalties, public outreach requirements, franchise fees, variable rate base (PAYT), grants to non-profits, reporting and review requirements, parallel municipal services to small businesses and multi-unit buildings, mandatory hauler services for franchised haulers, lower fees for city-approved recycling/composting services, expansion assistance to existing businesses based on highest and best use of materials processed or used for manufacturing, use of workforce development, CDBG and other funds to match private investment, public awareness and in-school programs, training workshops featuring zero waste companies, corporate take back requirements and/or market campaigns, stewardship council to negotiate with industry product and package designers, transfer station design and fee structure, are viable applications to reach the goal of charging for wasting.