Stakeholders’ willingness to pay for the new construction and demolition waste landfill charge scheme in Shenzhen: A contingent valuation approach

Abstract

To promote the sorting and recycling rate of construction and demolition waste (CDW), economically incentive policy has been widely adopted by developed economies. Referring to the successful landfill charge scheme in Hong Kong, a renewal CDW landfill charge scheme was assumed to be implemented in Shenzhen. Instead of thumb rules, this study employed contingent valuation method (CVM) to evaluate the local stakeholders’ willingness to pay (WTP) for disposal of CDW. This study aims to set a reasonable landfill charge level instead of a theoretically ideal one in order to facilitate industry’s behavioral change. In essence, this study attempts to find the tipping point that the stakeholders will change their waste handling behavior. The construction industry of Shenzhen was surveyed and a total of 106 valid questionnaires were collected. Results show the mean WTPs for disposal of Inert CDW, Half mixed CDW and Mixed CDW were RMB¥6.1, 24.0 and 33.6 (about US$ 0.89, 3.53 and 4.94) per ton respectively. Through regression analysis, firm size, ownership, position, environmental concern, perceived benefit and effectiveness were found to have significant effect on stakeholders’ WTP for the disposal of CDW. These results provide useful references for improving the current CDW landfill charge scheme in Shenzhen.