Creating a market for garbage
Date
2003-09
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Abstract
The Philippines. especially the NCR, has a worsening solid waste problem. Solid wastes are growing at a rate faster than we can dispose it. It is not surprising that a decade from now, Metro Manila will be faced with a major solid waste problem. Because of this, the authors decided to come up with a solid waste licensing and license trading scheme that aims to establish property rights to the landfill where municipalities dispose their wastes and in the process create a market for solid wastes. Through this scheme, the authors hope to encourage waste reduction activities at the municipal level. This license trading program is adapted from the emissions trading program used in Western countries to reduce air pollution. most especially carbon dioxide. The sample data collected by the JICA Study Team and MMDA for solid waste disposal by three municipalities in Metro Manila in 1997 was used to determine whether such program could work. The main goal of this study is to establish property rights to a landfill (in terms of the amount of waste that can be disposed) by considering the absorption capacity for a municipality with respect to a hypothetical landfill and to create a market wherein garbage can be traded through licenses. Revenues from license trading may serve as incentives to municipalities to reduce their wastes. After establishing ·property rights and issuing licenses to dispose wastes, the feasibility of license trading among municipalities was proven. The implication is that if a municipality reduces the waste it generates, it could trade its extra licenses with other municipalities that demand more licenses. This paper proposes that MMDA should implement such license trading scheme to help improve the garbage situation in Metro Manila
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Keywords
Waste management, Recycling, Composting, Circular economy, Waste resources, Waste trading