Factors influencing the citizen cost burden in managing the volume-based waste fee system in South Korea

•Examines the factors that affect citizen cost burden in a volume-based fee system.•The country of interest is the Republic of Korea.•The increased price of VWF plastic bags reduces the citizen’s cost burden.•Waste management budget independence increases citizen cost burden. Since 2000, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) has earned the highest rank for its municipal solid waste (MSW) recycling rate among OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) member countries. Extant research has validated the volume-based waste fee system (VWF) as the major determinant of such strong recycling performance. However, the common theme of past studies was to identify the determinants of the recycling rate. This general trend in research created a knowledge gap in the sense that there has been no assessment of the degree to which citizens bear a cost burden when a VWF system is implemented in their region. The current study attempts to fill this gap by examining the factors that affect a citizen’s cost burden under VWF. Using data from 25 local governments in South Korea over a period of 11 years, the current study conducts an empirical analysis of the effects of recycling rate, VWF plastic bag price, and waste cleaning budget independence ratio on the citizen VWF cost burden ratio. The findings indicate the pricing effect of VWF plastic bags does reduce the citizen’s burden in paying for the costs of VWF. The findings also suggest that in regions where the budget independence for waste cleaning activities is high, citizens share more of the cost burden for VWF management.