The Waste Market

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-VII

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2. Introduction

   • E. Dijkgraaf, R.H.J.M. Gradus

   Pages 1-8

3. Cost Savings of Contracting Out Refuse Collection in The Netherlands

   • E. Dijkgraaf, R.H.J.M. Gradus

   Pages 9-21

4. Contracting Out Refuse Collection in The Netherlands

   • E. Dijkgraaf, R.H.J.M. Gradus, B. Melenberg

   Pages 23-41

5. Contracting Out in Sweden: Ownership and Production Costs

   • H. Ohlsson

   Pages 43-65

6. Does Public Ownership Impair Efficiency in Norwegian Refuse Collection?

   • R.J. Sørensen

   Pages 67-81

7. Refuse Collection in Spain: Privatization, Intermunicipal Cooperation, and Concentration

   • Germà Bel

   Pages 83-100

8. How to Get Increasing Competition in the Dutch Refuse Collection Market?

   • E. Dijkgraaf, R.H.J.M. Gradus

   Pages 101-109

9. Dutch Cost Savings in Unit-Based Pricing of Household Waste

   • E. Dijkgraaf, R.H.J.M. Gradus

   Pages 111-130

10. Assessing Instruments for Mixed Household Solid Waste Collection Services in Flanders

    • X. Gellynck, P. Verhelst

    Pages 131-147

11. Final Comments and Future Research

    • E. Dijkgraaf, R.H.J.M. Gradus

    Pages 149-154

12. Back Matter

    Pages 155-157

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E. Dijkgraaf and R. H. J. M. Gradus 1. 1 Introduction In 2004 Elbert Dijkgraaf nished a PhD-thesis ‘Regulating the Dutch waste market’ at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. It was interesting that not much is published about the waste market, although it is a very important sector from an economic and environmental viewpoint. In 2006 we were participants at a very interesting conf- ence on Local Government Reform: privatization and public-private collaboration in Barcelona organized by Germa ` Bel. It was interesting to notice that researchers from Spain, Scandinavian countries, the UK and the USA were studying this issue as well. From this we brought forward the idea to publish a book about the waste market. Because of its legal framework we want to focus on Europe. In this chapter we give an introduction to this book. In the next paragraph we present a short overview of the waste collection market. Since 1960 the importance of the waste sector has increased substantially both in the waste streams and the costs of waste collection and treatment. Furthermore, we discuss policy measures to deal with these increases and give an overview of the different measures in - countries. In the last paragraph we present different chapters of our book. 1. 2 Empirical Update of the Waste Collection Market The Dutch case provides a nice example why studying the waste market is int- esting from an economic point of view.

• development
• market behavior
• municipal waste management
• privatization
• production
• unit-based pricing
• waste management

From the reviews:

"This specialized work on the topic of solid waste collection management in five European countries consists of eight substantive chapters: four on Holland and one each on Sweden, Norway, Spain, and Belgium. … for those concerned with the efficiency of municipal operations … this work, edited by academicians from the Netherlands, is a valuable resource containing much food for thought. Summing Up: Recommended. Comprehensive graduate, research, and professional collections." (J. Prager, Choice, Vol. 46 (11), July, 2009)

• SEOR-ECRi, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

  E. Dijkgraaf

• Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, The Netherlands

  R.H.J.M. Gradus

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