Trash in Mongolia

Mongolia has something of a trash problem. There is a trash disposal system in Mongolia complete with landfills and trash trucks many of which were donated by the people of Japan to Mongolia. The problem is rather uncommon in the built-up districts of town. However, in the ger districts it has become quite a problem. To understand the problem one needs to understand how the old system worked, the reason for the change to the new system, and the incentives of both.

For many years, Mongolia had a system whereby the property owner paid the trash truck whenever the truck came by to collect garbage. As I understood it, the more garbage one had, the higher the cost to dispose of it. It seemed like a fair system to me. The garbage men had an incentive to pick up the garbage—no pickup, no payment—and come by regularly.

However, the property owner had an incentive to dispose of the garbage, if possible, without the use of the trash truck. Some would burn their garbage which contributed to the pollution of the city. Some would dump their garbage in a convenient place. Once one person "announced" a convenient place to dump garbage, others would follow their lead and soon an alley or dark corner would turn into a miniature trash heap. One alley near our church's building was always clogged with garbage. When the trash truck came by, the property owner would correctly assert that he had no garbage to dispose of and avoid paying a fee.

Eventually, someone in government or the trash disposal business become aware of the problem. The law was changed so that property owners paid a basic garbage fee along with their electricity bill. This eliminated the property owners incentive to find "alternative" means to dispose of his garbage. He paid the same regardless of the amount of garbage he generated.

But now the garbage men were dis-incentivized to collect garbage as often. Before, the more garbage they collected, the more money they made. With the new system, the payment was the same. Whether the amount of trash collected grew or the rate of collection diminshed, I cannot say. But where before one could expect the trash truck to come every 4-6 weeks, now the trash truck may not come for months. Since January, the trash truck has come by the church property once. Because this is not often enough for us, we have paid a private trash collector on several occasions to dispose of the garbage.

Others still dump their garbage on the roadside, burn it at night, or fill the odd corner with trash. Where before they did it to avoid paying the trash collection fee, they now do it to avoid being overrun with refuse. It is all a matter of finding the right incentives.