Evaluating Impacts of Siting Landfill Based on Public Preferences

Abstract
The socio-economic impacts of siting landfill on residents living in surrounding areas is examined and, using conjoint analysis, public attitudes are investigated. Conjoint analysis is a multi-attribute preference-elicitation technique based on a contingent choice survey. We conducted a questionnaire survey of some residents in Morioka city, Iwate prefecture in Northern Japan. By our empirical study, we find out that people are opposed strongly to siting landfill in areas which are sources of drinking water. Waste disposal, including industrial waste, and the expansion of areas for waste disposal are also found to have undesirable effects on the community. In particular we find out that the impact of disposing industrial waste originating in metropolitan area but disposed in Iwate prefecture exceeds the negative effects of siting landfill in drinking water sources. In addition, we find out that adjacent residents evaluate more positively the further away they are from a landfill. The increase in utility is observed to be up to approximately 4.72km.

Key words: landfill, conjoint analysis, socio-economical evaluation, NIMBY