In 2006, the Logan City Environmental Department implemented a mandatory curbside recycling program that serves over 94,000 people in the valley. How much should citizens be required to pay for this service?  USU Economics researcher Arthur Caplan helped the Environmental Department make that decision.

Caplan estimated the amount residents were willing to pay by using “cheap talk” to mitigate the effects of hypothetical bias, or the amount people say they are willing to pay in contrast to how much they would actually write on a check. Households considered the time it takes to clean, sort, and store recyclables compared to the perceived benefits of recycling. These benefit-side factors, along with cost estimates determined by the Environmental Department, played a role in the final decision to implement the program. The monthly fee was also partially determined by the citizens’ estimated willingness to pay.