Charge Systems of Home Appliance Recycling Law and Policies Preventing Illegal Disposal

Abstract

This paper compares the frameworks and the present situations of the Home Appliance Recycling Law in Japan, and two Directives on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances applied in the European Union. A simple general equilibrium model is developed where the policy-maker aims to internalize the external diseconomy due to illegal disposal. Focusing on the difference in the charge systems each consumer faces, an important result will be derived which implies that an advanced payment used in some European countries is not necessarily superior to the deferred one enacted in Japan.