Economic Analysis of “Garbage Conflicts” (The Example of Modern Russia)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the economic analysis of conflicts related to the disposal of municipal solid waste. A wave of protests, both against garbage dumps and against the construction of incineration plants, overwhelmed Moscow suburbs in the summer of 2017. These protests are a form of environmental conflict and are well described by the theory of external effects. This theory allows us to identify and evaluate the real economic costs of various waste disposal options which the decision makers do not take into account. The article analyzes quantitative estimates of the external effects of the most common waste management methods – landfilling and incineration. It is shown that the distribution of external costs between the source of externalities and recipients forms an objective economic basis of “garbage conflicts”. These are important social markers of unsustainability. The concept of sustainable development requires a transition to a higher level in the hierarchy of waste management methods – the processing and reuse of waste, for which incineration is a competitor. Western countries imposed a moratorium on the construction of new incineration plants and strengthened modernization requirements to the remaining plants. Despite this fact the Russian government proposes a strategy based on outdated technologies of incineration. The environmental characteristics of these new plants are inferior to the Western ones. In this regard, we can expect only an increase in the protest activity of the population, which can be stopped only by developing a really science-based concept of solid waste management.