Do not Trash the Incentive! Monetary incentives and waste sorting

This paper examines whether monetary incentives are an effective tool for increasing domestic waste sorting. We exploit the exogenous variation in the waste management policies experienced during the years 1999-2008 by the 95 municipalities in the district of Treviso (Italy). We estimate with a panel analysis that pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) incentive schemes increase by 12.3% the sorted-total waste ratio. This increase reflects a change in the behavior of households, who keep unaltered the production of total waste but sort it to a larger extent. Our data show that household behavior is also influenced by the policies of adjacent municipalities.Incentives, environment, waste management, PAYT

Garbage collection in a large, distributed object store

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-97).by Umesh Maheshwari.Ph.D

Reclaiming Waste, Remaking Communities: Persistence and Change in Delhi's Informal Garbage Economy

Reclaiming Waste, Remaking Communities: Persistence and Change in Delhi's Informal Garbage Economy examines the unanticipated impact of expanded municipal garbage collection services in Delhi, India in the mid-2000s through public-private partnerships (PPP) that included collection trucks and incinerators. Drawing on twenty months of ethnographic research, I ask how it is that informal collectors, who rely on pedal-powered tricycle carts and their hands to extract recyclables, have survived the expansion of these formal services that threatened their livelihoods and the city's only system for recycling. Despite being heavily supported by the government, these PPP services were effectively stalled and transformed by the resilience of the collector-recyclers’ unofficial enterprise, ensuring the continuation of a recycling network. The manuscript addresses the following questions: What do economic relations look like in this context, and what kinds of moral economies configure them? How are social relations and status distinctions reproduced and transformed through transactions of garbage and money? And how does the legacy, experience, and threat of stigmatization—embodied in the idea and object of garbage and ranging in scale from individual practice to global reputation maintenance—shape transactional possibilities? Revealing how forms of economic life across multiple scales depend on caste/community relations, the navigation of caste and (post)colonial stigma, and the reproduction of status through transactions, the dissertation brings together literatures from economic sociology and anthropology, political ecology, and theories of caste/race in order to explain persistent forms of unofficial economic organization.PHDSociologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162989/1/danakorn_1.pd

Problems Associated with the Management of Solid Wastes: Is There a Solution in the Offing

Within the past decade, the level of environmental consciousness within our society has increased appreciably with the recognition of how delicate the ecological balance is and how easily it may be disrupted. Such consciousness has manifested itself primarily in stricter standards governing the emission of pollutants into the air and water. Unfortunately, this justifiable preoccupation with the quality of our air and water has overshadowed the needless desecration of America\u27s land resources through the inadequate and environmentally unsound practices associated with the disposal of solid wastes. The purposes of this Note are to identify the scope of the solid waste disposal problem both nationally and in West Virginia; to examine the federal and state legislative responses to this problem; to analyze whether the West Virginia statutory scheme is effective in the disposition of the problem; and, finally, to advance recommendations which will facilitate the realization of environmentally sound solid waste disposal practices

Shooting Stars and Dancing Fish: A Walk to the World We Want

From the foreword by Durwood Zaelke, President, Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, Washington, DC. “Since the beginning of time, human knowledge and culture have been passed down through stories. Short stories, songs, prayers, poems, even paintings can stick in your mind forever. These have always been the most powerful ways we learn and remember. Tony is not only one of the world’s greatest lawyers, he is also one of the world’s greatest storytellers. This book, in which he generously shares his experiences, his scars, and most importantly his humanity, is Tony’s gift to generations to come. But he does not entrust us with his life stories for entertainment. These stories have a purpose. As Tony reminds us all, the time for taking is over. And the time for talking is over. These stories are a call to action. Through humor, beauty and sometimes fear, Tony brilliantly demonstrates how we can and we should ‘paint our future.’ He opens our minds to the possibilities for brighter surroundings. Concepts like creative justice and the law of life, are simple yet brilliant examples of how we must learn to interact with the world around us. This is not a textbook meant just for lawyers, policymakers or scientists. Rather it distills concepts like law, diplomacy and observation to show where we need to go and how we can get there. Whether it be writing, singing or painting, Tony has always had a gift for storytelling. This is a storybook for the future, and we are lucky to have Tony showing all of us the way.

Achieving Integrated Street Management in the City of Westminster

The purpose of “Achieving Integrated Street Management in the City of Westminster†was threefold: firstly to gain an understanding of the current street cleansing system; secondly to recommend improvements to that system; and thirdly to develop reporting specifications that would be useful for implementation in future handheld technology

Effective information sharing using update logs

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-88).by James William O'Toole, Jr.Ph.D

Thinking Outside the Box: Strategies and Examples for in the Preservation and Development of Heritage

This paper present examples of positive economic and social impacts of cultural projects and mentions an interpretation of the positive interaction between development and culture. Several best practices are explored for each single topic and guidelines for future IDB projects are suggested. This paper complement the document: Thinking Outside the Box: Arguments for IADB's Involvement in the Preservation and Development of Heritage in which were discussed topics related to the role of culture in development and the social impact of culture.Culture & Arts, Heritage Conservation, Urban Development

The Effects of Teaching Nonfiction Text Structure Reading Strategies and Thinking Maps on Writing Quality in Sixth-Grade ELA and Science Students

The purpose of this action research study is to examine the use of nonfiction text structures (i.e. mentor texts, signal words, and thinking maps) in both English language arts (ELA) and science classes to evaluate the comprehension of topics and concepts through student writing samples. The researchers used multiple data sources to better understand how the instruction of nonfiction text structures affects the ability of sixth-grade students to express their comprehension through writing. Confidential preand post-feedback forms were used to gauge student perceptions of writing improvement and comprehension. Each teacher also conducted confidential student conferences twice during the study and used a common rubric to assess writing samples. The researchers triangulated data to investigate the effects on students’ writing skills, their perception of those skills, and the instruction of writing for/in various classes. Following the analysis of data for meaningful trends, the researchers found that interdisciplinary writing instruction was best supported when teachers collaboratively create and implement common strategies and assessments