| Sumario: | A commentary on J.G. Strathman, A.M. Rufolo, and G.C.S. Mildner's “The Demand for Solid Waste Disposal,” which appeared in Land Economics, vol. 71 (February), pp. 57-64. Strathman, Rufolo, and Mildner (SRM) implicitly set σij, which reflects the substitutability of landfill services with other inputs, equal to zero in their elasticity of demand function, but if landfill services are substitutable with other inputs, then omitting σij from the calculation will result in overestimation of the price elasticity of demand for collection services. In addition, the adjustment that SRM make to calculate their elasticity is not needed if conditions ensuring that marginal cost is related to landfill tipping fees by a constant factor prevail. In the case of waste collection services being provided by a municipality or through a franchise, the charge to generators will probably be close to or the same as the competitively determined price if the entity wishes to break even. Finally, if externalities exist because of other aspects of waste collection and disposal, these costs must be included when calculating volume-based rates in order to realize all potential efficiency gains.
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