OPTIMAL CLEANUP OF HAZARDOUS WASTES

Over the past decade, the world community has focused on the deleterious effects of hazardous waste on humans, wildlife, and the environment. The United States Congress established a ''Superfund'' aimed at cleaning up these wastes. This legislation and the impending regulations have given little explicit recognition to either the opportunity cost of using resources to clean up waste or the possibility of intertemporal tradeoffs. We formulate a dynamic model of waste cleanup that examines the environmental damage and resource cost of cleaning up hazardous wastes in order to determine the pace and extent of optimal cleanup.