Comment 30432

By A Smith (anonymous) | Posted April 23, 2009 at 22:12:01

Frank >> Water bottles are a huge source of litter

If the government got out of the business of running landfills, garbage wouldn't be a problem. Like everything else they operate governments create shortages because they don't attach a price to the service they provide. Whether it's free health care, free roads or free landfills, if the government charged people for the services they used, demand would go down and supply would increase.

In the case of garbage, people would begin looking for goods with as little packaging as possible and the government could use the increased revenue to invest in technology to store waste as efficiently as possible. Instead, by not charging people for a service they need, the government stores waste inefficiently and then has to create across the board limits on the amount of waste one can make. Therefore if your a large family, too bad, you're screwed. However, if your a single homeowner, you end up with a garbage limit above your needs.

>> set the global atmosphere on a trajectory toward runaway warming?

Have you been outside recently?

>> My inclination is to prefer the use of incentives to drive consumer behaviour (e.g. through a tax on plastic bottles and bags to make them less economical)

Abolish free garbage pick up and start charging people per bag and the garbage problem will go away.

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