Policy Review

Solid waste management options for Maine: The economics of pay-by-the-bag systems Maine Policy Review (1995). Volume 4, Number 2 State and federal environmental mandates during the last three decades have changed the nature of the debate over solid waste disposal, but not the basic question: What do we do about the garbage we produce? Unlike years past, however, disposal options are now fewer and more costly. This has resulted in a shift in focus away from solutions that simply try to deal with the output of the disposal process--the trash--to those that focus on inputs--reducing the volume of materials going into the waste stream. Among the volume reduction strategies are recycling, which focuses on specific input materials, and volume-based fees, such as pay-by-the-bag (PB) solid waste disposal systems. This article is based on a report of the Margaret Chase Smith