10.2190/ES.31.4.c L8495K65508K2064 3 The Learning Curve's Role in Explaining Household Curbside Recycling Rates 333 347 20081013 20081013 20081013 20081013 L8495K65508K2064.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=L8495K65508K2064 4 John McCollough Mary Ellen Roesch The Pennsylvania State University, Lehigh Valley This article asserts that the average household needs time to learn how to recycle common household materials once a recycling program has been put into place by the local municipality. Households must learn to sort waste efficiently and develop good recycling habits. This means learning when to recycle, what to recycle, and how to recycle. After these skills are learned the skills then need to be incorporated into the daily lifestyle of household members. The article tests this assertion by running an autoregressive model with household recycling as the dependent variable and recycling "lagged" as independent variables. Other independent variables which are common to the literature, such as education and community tenure, are used within the model as well. Monthly data was collected from waste disposal authorities during their first few months of operating a recycling program. The results presented in this article can enhance planning by community officials who are considering starting their own recycling programs. It will give them an idea as to how much time is needed before households become adept at recycling. Community officials can then better plan for the growth as they experience their own learning curve when dealing with the relatively new community service (i.e., collecting and marketing recycled products). C. Saltzman, V. Duggal, and M. Williams, Income and Recycling Effort: A Maximization Problem, <i>Energy Economics, 15</i>:1, pp. 33-38, January 1993. S. Hong, R. Adams, and A. H. Love, An Economic Analysis of Household Recycling: The Case of Portland, Oregon, <i>Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 28</i>:2, pp. 136-146, September 1995. T. Kinnaman and D. Fullerton, <i>Garbage and Recycling in Communities with Curbside Recycling and Unit Based Pricing</i>, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc., Working Paper Series #6021, April 1997. J. Thogersen, Monetary Incentives and Recycling: Behavioural and Psychological Reactions to a Performance-Dependent Garbage Fee, <i>Journal of Consumer Policy, 26</i>:2, pp. 197-228, 2003. K. Rankin, Massachusetts DEP Recycling Participation Survey, accessed June 2000 at: <a target="_blank" href='http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/reduce/stasrv00.doc'>www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/reduce/stasrv00.doc</a> R. De Young, Some Psychological Aspects of Recycling: The Structure of Conservation Satisfaction, <i>Environment and Behavior, 18</i>:4, pp. 435-449, July 1986. D. Scott, Equal Opportunity, Unequal Results: Determinants of Household Recycling Intensity, <i>Environment and Behavior, 31</i>:2, pp. 267-290, March 1999. C. Johnson, J. M. Bowker, and K. Cordell, Ethnic Variation in Environmental Belief and Behavior: An Examination of the New Ecological Paradigm in a Social Psychological Context, <i>Environment and Behavior, 36</i>:2, pp. 157-186, March 2004. M. D. Martinez and M. J. Scicchitano, Who Listens to Trash Talk? Education and Public Media Effects on Recycling Behavior, <i>Social Science Quarterly, 79</i>:2, pp. 287-298, 1998. K. Arrow, The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing, <i>The Review of Economic Studies, 29</i>:3, pp. 155-173, 1962. G. Day and D. Montgomery, Diagnosing the Experience Curve, <i>Journal of Marketing, 47</i>:2, pp. 44-58, Spring 1983. E. Von Hippel and M. Tyre, How "Learning by Doing" is Done: Problem Identification in Novel Process Equipment, <i>Research Policy, 241</i>, pp. 1-12, 1995. Institute for Local Self-Reliance, <i>The New Recycling Movement: Part I, Recycling Changes to Meet New Challenges</i>, ILSR, Washington, DC, 2003. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, <i>Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2005 Facts and Figures</i>, EPA Office of Solid Waste, Report # EPA 530-R-06-011, Washington, DC, 2006. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Office of Waste Management, 2006. <a target="_blank" href='http://www.umass.edu/recycle/recycling_benefits.shtml'>www.umass.edu/recycle/recycling_benefits.shtml</a> U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, <i>U.S. Recycling Economics Information Study</i>, R. W. Beck Inc., U.S. Recycling Economic Information Study: Prepared for The National Recycling Coalition, July 2001. Retrieved from <a target="_blank" href='http://www.EPA.gov/jtr/econ/rei-rw'>www.EPA.gov/jtr/econ/rei-rw</a> P. Van Beukering, <i>Recycling, International Trade, and the Environment: An Empirical Analysis</i>, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, Massachusetts, 2001. S. Taylor and P. Todd, P., An Integrated Model of Waste Management Behavior: A Test of Household Recycling and Composting Intentions, <i>Environment and Behavior, 27</i>:5, pp. 603-630, September 1995.