2002 Volume 75 Issue 2 Pages 69-87
This paper, based on the recent discussions of the decentralization of administration decision making, considers the areal differences in the supply of public service in terms of domestic waste collection service in the Nagoya region. Specifically, it examines the effects of regional characteristics of municipalities on those areal differences.
Since the enactment of the Waste Disposal and Public Cleaning Law in 1975, municipalities have supplied domestic waste collection service. The Nagoya region contains 257 municipalities, of which the regional bases show great variety. The major findings are as follows.
First, this service is supplied by the private sector to reduce costs in most municipalities, although it is supplied by the public sector or joint administration mainly because of the lack of private-secto firms or the inertia of existing public sector staff in some municipalities. Second, the number of waste categories has increased after the enactment of the Law for Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging (1994) in many municipalities. The areal differences in the number of waste categories were determined by the amount of waste, the existence of local communities, and the increase in disposal costs. Third, there are no significant differences in the collection frequency of burnable waste, but the frequency decreases in the towns and villages that dispose of small amounts, of waste. Fourth, compared with Aichi Prefecture and Gifu Prefecture, Mie Prefecture has a fewer municipalities that have introduced fee-charging systems aimed at reducing waste. In some towns and villages, the fee-charging system is meant to supplement part of the waste disposal cost. Fifth, the process of utilizing private-sector waste collection and implementing a waste reduction policy differs significantly between cities and rural communities. The larger cities do not actively introduce private-sector waste collection or waste reduction policies.
