An ad-hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will review available information on programmatic and economic costs of municipal solid waste (MSW) recycling programs in municipal, county, state, and tribal governments. The committee will provide advice in the form of options, including potential policy approaches, to facilitate the effective implementation of MSW recycling programs. (MSW materials and programmatic and economic costs are defined below.)

As part of its assessment, and to the extent sufficient data are available, the committee will address the following aspects with respect to MSW recycling programs. The committee will base its analyses on examination of several different case studies in the United States as exemplars. The case studies will represent a range of circumstances (e.g., some from each of the municipal, county, state, and tribal governments; environmental justice considerations such as different population sizes and demographics; different geographical locations; different economies; etc.):

• Describe differences in programmatic and economic costs across municipal, county, state, and tribal governments. Examples of possible considerations include:

o Types and differences in programmatic elements and capabilities (e.g., urban vs. rural vs. tribal needs) across government types.

o Types of recycling programs implemented (e.g., curbside collection programs, drop-off-only programs, commercial and residential programs, back-hauling programs).

o Factors that impact a government agency's ability to fund and administer a recycling program.

• Examine the ways in which costs of MSW programs differ based on materials accepted for recycling. Examples of possible considerations include:

o Infrastructure (including freight), technology, and end markets that exist for commonly recycled materials.

o Costs of material-specific approaches such as single-stream vs. dual-stream residential recycling, curbside food and yard waste pickup services, and glass separation mandates.

The committee will provide recommendations in the form of options to effectively incentivize and fund recycling activities in an economically and environmentally sound way. The development of options should include considerations of:

• Supply-side policies (e.g., economic incentives for people to recycle) and demand-side policies (e.g., Extended Producer Responsibility, recycled content mandates, or tax credits for remanufacturing firms to prioritize use of recycled over virgin materials).

• Estimates of the programmatic and economic cost implications and time frames for implementing the options.

• Metrics for the evaluation of the effectiveness of different policies or other approaches.

• Environmental impact and related climate change considerations that focus primarily on changes in greenhouse gas emissions, including emissions from transportation-related sources.

• Uncertainties in the supply of and demand for recyclable materials that create complexity in cost-benefit analyses.

The committee will review references pertaining to the costs of recycling programs, factors that impact a local government's ability to fund and administer a recycling program, and policies or other approaches that facilitate the implementation of recycling programs. The committee will characterize key limitations within the existing references on the costs of recycling programs and identify future research needs.

MSW materials that are considered in-scope for this study include commonly recycled or composted materials, such as paper, metals (e.g., aluminum), glass, plastics (types #1 and #2), food scraps, and yard waste from the residential, commercial, and institutional sectors that are converted into raw materials and used in the production of new products. Materials that are specifically out of scope for recycling considerations include textiles, electronic waste, construction and demolition debris, household hazardous waste, auto bodies, municipal sludge, combustion ash, and industrial process wastes that might also be disposed of in municipal waste landfills or incinerators. Material management pathways that are considered in-scope for this report include mechanical recycling of MSW and composting of organic waste. Material management pathways specifically out of scope include any type of waste-to-energy process, incineration, or fuel substitute production.

Programmatic costs are expenses needed to implement MSW recycling programs, such as purchase of collection trucks and operation and maintenance of material recovery facilities. Economic costs may include opportunity costs of recycling vs. landfilling; fluctuations in the supply, demand, and price of recycled commodities; externalities (such as emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and a household's willingness to pay for recycling services based on marginal social costs and benefits.