Friday
Jan162009
« Creative market solution to increase recycling »
Friday, January 16, 2009 at 7:44PM
In an AJC article summarizing the socialized garbage saga, amid the well-worn storyline, I came across a very interesting nugget.
This is exactly the kind of solution that should be implemented to increase the level of recycling in Gwinnett! No one is forced to recycle nor is anyone punished if they don't. Rather, residents are offered incentives to choose to recycle. I cannot say how effective this program will be. There may well be better ways to incent a desired behavior, but the key point here is that the free market, yet again, addressed a problem in a far better manner than did the heavy fist of government.
Such a shame that, though free enterprise has a track of such success compared to the vast majority of government programs and mandates, our country has naively elected a president and Congress that is hostile to so many free market solutions, opting instead for the oppressiveness of big government.
Republic Services, with the county’s largest customer base, has announced a new program whereby customers will receive “reward points” for every pound of material they recycle. These points can be redeemed at local retailers.
This is exactly the kind of solution that should be implemented to increase the level of recycling in Gwinnett! No one is forced to recycle nor is anyone punished if they don't. Rather, residents are offered incentives to choose to recycle. I cannot say how effective this program will be. There may well be better ways to incent a desired behavior, but the key point here is that the free market, yet again, addressed a problem in a far better manner than did the heavy fist of government.
Such a shame that, though free enterprise has a track of such success compared to the vast majority of government programs and mandates, our country has naively elected a president and Congress that is hostile to so many free market solutions, opting instead for the oppressiveness of big government.
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[...] also touched on the company’s incentive program to encourage [...]