A Comparison of Household Recycling Behaviors in Norway and the United States

GORM KIPPERBERG. 2007. A Comparison of Household Recycling
Behaviors in Norway and the United States. Environmental & Resource Economics 36, no. 2: 20. doi:DOI 10.1007/s10640-006-9019-x.

This study is addressing the same questions I am except it is comparing data between the U.S. and Norway. It contains reference material that would be helpful as reference material for me.

This study, (and others cited below) would act as a comparison to practices and results in the United States. It would be remiss to assume that the United States is the only recycling country in the world. It is noteworthy that the author remarks in the introduction that “despite the importance of this topic, the empirical literature employing highly disaggregated data to investigate policy effectiveness is sparse” (GORM KIPPERBERG 2007). This is certainly true for the United States.

Sources for this topic are surprisingly scarce. The author relies on Statistics Norway’s fourth quarter 1999 economic survey and Jenkins et al. (2003) for the data. This is a real problem, but not one that affects the veracity of the study. The sources used are very comprehensive, even if they are limited.

This study examines and compares several different factors that influence household recycling behavior in both Norway and the United States. The primary factors examined are user –fees and Community Recycling Programs and how they influence recycling behavior. The recycling behavior includes voluntary versus mandatory disposal fees, and curbside collection versus drop-off programs. All types of recyclables are covered. These are all broken down by various demographics.