QUOTE : Such perverse incentives for waste permeate the economy. Most sanitation systems charge homeowners the same rate for large amounts of trash rolled to the curb as they do for small amounts - one flat fee for all, whether your neighbor makes half the trash you do, or twice as much. But some communities use a "pay as you throw" model: make less waste to be hauled away, use a smaller size bin at the curb, and you pay less each month. Bigger trash bins receive bigger bills because there's more to haul - an eminently fair setup. With that model, an incentive to be wasteful is replaced by an incentive to be thrifty. Give each homeowner a recycling bin and make hauling its contents free regardless of the amount of recyclables inside, and another incentive is born: an economic incentive to sort trash properly (which a surprising number of people resist under the what's in it for me? objection to the minor inconvenience of sorting).