Das Verursacherprinzip : eine Anwendung bei der Siedlungsabfallentsorgung

Abstract

The Polluter Pays Principle has become a widely accepted political guideline for dealing with environmental problems. In order to apply this principle to the municipal solid waste management three questions are discussed: (i) who are the polluters, (ii) what are the costs they have to pay, (iii) and where should these costs be imposed on the polluters? The determination of the polluter is mainly a juridical problem while the two other questions lie in the center of economic theory. The imposition of the total social costs of waste disposal is theoretical/y convincing but practically not feasible. Therefore another approach is chosen: the costs to be internalized are the costs that result from reaching a politically set environmental standard. lt is argued that for an efficient compliance with this standard it is not enough to intemalize the operational costs of waste treatment. An additional charge should be levied to influence the quantity of municipal solid waste directly.