A.8 When citizens litter indiscriminantly and collection services are inadequate, waste accumulates in streets and on open lots. The costs for cleaning up these areas can be very high. The costs/tonne of public cleansing (including general clean up of open areas and street sweeping) are two to three times the costs/tonne of collection. The obvious way to minimize the expenditures required for street sweeping and general cleaning is through a) public education, inspection, and enforcement of laws regulating citizen behavior, and b) adequate provision of collection service to all residents.

1. Capital amortization costs were based on using an interest rate of 10 to 12 percent for on-line lending to local governments on internationally financed projects. It is recognized that private sector capital amortization costs would be substantially higher if borrowing from local commercial banks is necessary.

A.9 For purposes of this estimate of municipal solid waste management costs, it is assumed that a well-run city in a developing country would have no more than 10 percent of its total waste quantity collected through public cleansing, whereas a well-run city in an industrialized country would have no more than 5 percent of its total waste quantity collected through public cleansing. Assuming that the costs/tonne for public cleansing are roughly two times higher than the costs/tonne of collection, the costs for public cleansing are estimated below.

Costs for public cleansing