Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Impact of State Deposit Laws and Recycling Laws : Household Recycling Following Interstate Moves

This paper measures the effects of recycling and deposit laws based on the impact of changes in recycling environments for households that moved between states. Estimates from panel data on 3,902 households who moved provide a quasi-experimental test of effects of deposit laws and recycling laws that is otherwise not possible given the long-term stability of such laws. Moves to states with deposit policies or more stringent laws each increase the number of materials recycled by ten percent. However, consistent decreases in recycling only occurred for moves from states with deposit laws to states without deposits. The shift to environments with less stringent laws has less of a dampening effect on recycling than the diminished financial incentives from leaving a deposit law state