Household Willingness to Pay for Improved Solid Waste Management Services: Using Contingent Valuation Analysis in India

Abstract

Solid waste management is one of the crucial problems in India. An increasing population, industrialization and urbanization have major sources for increasing solid waste in India. The per capita waste generation in India is between 0.6 and 1 kg per day also expected to increase in future. This chapter has discussed two important aspects first; there is lack of study on economic analysis India, second most of the studies have focused on urban solid waste management in India. The present study has used household willingness to pay through the contingent valua- tion method for improved solid waste management of 150 household in semi-urban areas in Madurai, India. The study has found that the household respondents are willingness to pay Rs 24 (US$ 0.34) for clean environment in the semi-urban area. This study has also found more than 95% of household respondents are willing to pay for solid waste management in Madurai. Most of the household respondents are felt improper solid waste management has one of the important reasons for health issue particularly for children and elderly people in the study area. The main policy implication of the study is to design proper solid waste management plan for collection, transportation, disposal and segregation of solid waste in semi-urban areas in India.