reviews of the theoretical literature on the economics of household waste management can be found in choe and fraser and fullerton and kinnaman as first best solution a majority of the theoretical results identify depositrefund schemes a system with a tax or charge at production or consumer purchase and a refund to consumers that recycle andor firms that collect or reprocess recycled materials as an alternative first best solution when illegal disposal such as dumping is not a problem the results usually support the use of a virgin material tax or a tax on households disposal choices