| This dissertation theorizes that there are deeply ingrained micro behaviors which are responsible for driving the relationship between residential municipal solid waste and income. More specifically, a theory is presented in this dissertation which asserts that as a consumer's income increases, time becomes more valuable. The increase in income enables the consumer to purchase more goods which, in turn, contributes to an increase in solid waste. However, the increase in solid waste is magnified due to the fact that consumers, in order to economize on time, begin to substitute out of and away from reusable goods and into disposable goods.; To support this theory, data on repairs and purchases of similar products by consumers, as reported in the 1998 Bureau of Labor Statistic's Expenditure Interview Survey, is used. A logit statistical model is applied to the data in order to examine a consumer's behavior when faced with the choice of either repairing or replacing a product. The test results show that the probability of making a repair decreases as incomes increase for consumers, while the probability of replacing a product increases as incomes increase. Further evidence is provided which shows that consumers adopt and embrace this behavior at very early stages of income growth.; A second stage of testing is then developed to see to what extent the act of replacing or repairing a product has on the generation of net residential municipal solid waste. Ordinary least squares is used to test the sensitivity of a change in both the repair or replacement rate of a class of products on the generation of net residential municipal solid waste. Data used for this test comes from the California Integrated Waste Management Board.; The results of the second stage test show that the act of replacing a product is positively (and significantly) correlated to the generation of net residential municipal solid waste, while the act of replacing a product is found to be statistically insignificant in its relationship to the generation of net residential municipal solid waste.; These results suggest that it is not necessarily income growth that is responsible for the buildup of net residential municipal solid waste, rather it is the way in which consumers choose to spend their incomes. If consumers repair and maintain a product for reuse, there is no significant impact on residential municipal solid waste. However, if they continue to purchase disposable products and if they continue to replace products that could be reused via repairs and maintenance, the impact on solid waste is much greater. Thus income has an indirect role in helping to create the buildup of residential municipal solid waste, since it is really income that drives the consumer to substitute out of and away from reusable goods and into disposable goods as they attempt to economize on their opportunity cost of time. |
