Solid waste management by cities is governed, firstly, by local government laws, municipal ordinances and national public health codes. This regulatory framework outlines the obligations of households and establishments generating waste regarding their on-site storage, source-segregation and discharge into the city collection system. The regulatory framework also stipulates the requirements of the cities and their agents (such as licensees and contractors working on behalf of the cities) regarding their handling of waste at each point within the overall collection through disposal system.
Solid waste regulations define the service standards, norms and emission limits that have to be met. Beyond this regulatory framework that defines these service requirements for city solid waste systems, there are environmental policies and regulations established at the national level that the cities also address. Such environmental requirements, typically promulgated at the national level, include allowable emission levels from solid waste vehicles and facilities, as well as, environmental impact assessment requirements for facility siting and implementation.
Economic instruments provide incentives and disincentives that encourage environmental improvements beyond the regulatory framework. Some of these instruments are revenue based and include quantity-based user charges, recyclable deposit fees and environmental taxes. Other instruments are non-revenue based and include emission trading and carbon based financing. Composting, sanitary landfill with gas flaring or recovery, and alternative fuel use by garbage fleets provide new opportunities that tap into carbon financing and other global emission-based financing. These instruments provide new markets that can potentially support the implementation of composting and gas recovery where earlier end-user markets (such as farmers and power grids, respectively) were inadequate to justify the use of these technical choices.
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