Time for Waste, Waste of Time? Assessing Heterogeneous Values of Saving Time from Recycling

Although the opportunity cost of time spent recycling has long been recognized as a key determinant of household recycling participation, very few empirical studies have attempted to provide estimates of it. In this paper, we propose a model of household recycling that, while including pecuniary and non pecuniary motives for decisions, such as social or moral norms, reveals heterogeneous values of saving time from recycling (VSTR). The predictions of our model are tested using data from a discrete choice experiment on waste management conducted in 2008 in Corsica and estimating a latent-class rank-ordered logit model. We find VSTR clearly heterogeneous across individuals, ranging from 8 % to 76 % of one’s income.