An EU Recycling Target: What Does the Dutch Evidence Tell Us?

Elbert Dijkgraaf and Raymond Gradus ()

Environmental & Resource Economics, 2017, vol. 68, issue 3, No 3, 526 pages

Abstract: Abstract The European Union (EU) advocates a household waste recycling rate of more than 65 %. Although the Netherlands has already invested heavily in recycling policies, this is still a big challenge as nowadays this rate is approximately 50 % on average and very few no municipalities have a rate above 65 %. Given this practice, it is possible to learn from the Dutch experience which policies are effective in increasing recycling rates. Based on a large panel data set for the Netherlands, we show that unit-based pricing, avoiding a duo-bin for unsorted and compostable waste, and reducing the frequency of collecting unsorted and compostable waste at the curbside are effective in raising the recycling rate. However, only a bag-based pricing system has a substantial effect, but this policy can have some adverse effects. Other unit-based pricing systems have effects of less than 10 % points. In nearly all cases, changing the frequency of collection of recyclables has no or very small effects. Moreover, the complementarity between unit-based pricing and curbside service is low. Overall, it seems very difficult to reach the EU goal of 65 % with the policies applied.

Keywords: Recycling; Waste policy; EU-target; Local government; Netherlands (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q18 Q38 R11 R15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10640-016-0027-1

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