Can Economic Incentive Help Promote Waste Recycling?

Can economic incentive help promote waste recycling?

Environmental problems have been controversial over the recent years in Hong Kong, one of them is the waste recycling problem. The Hong Kong Government has long been promoting waste recycling, as waste recycling can “save energy, conserve resources, reduce emissions from incinerators and prolong life spans of landfills” (Seik, 1997; Rondinelli and Berry, 2000; Ekins et al., 2003; Tin- maz and Demir, 2006; Tsai, 2008), but it has little effect in arousing people’s awareness to reduce waste (Census and statistics department, 2010). In ten year’s time, the recycling rate remains nearly unchanged at around 40% (Hong Kong Government, 2010). Therefore, some scholars suggest economic incentive in waste recycling (Yao, 2010). However, some scholars do not agree that economic incentive can encourage waste recycling (M. Laidley, 2011). In my opinion, I agree that economic incentive is a solution because economic incentive can enhance the environmental awareness from the public through influential effects and it also helps to develop a long-term change in people’s thoughts on recycling, but it also involves complicated procedures and plans in order to achieve the goal of promoting waste recycling.

Yao (2010) suggests that economic incentive can promote waste recycling because he believes that this method can lead to the effect of influence. There is an example that some companies adopted a policy on recycling to let staff members to earn green points to redeem cash coupons, and other companies will follow because of corporate social responsibility. The same probably happens if the way is implemented to the public, as companies are the miniature of society. By carrying out economic incentive in waste recycling, non-recyclers will have initiative in recycling and their behaviors can be changed. The public then will follow because they are influenced by this recycling behavior. In the...