Municipal Waste Kuznets Curves: Evidence on Socio-Economic Drivers and Policy Effectiveness from the EU |
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Authors: | Massimiliano Mazzanti Roberto Zoboli |
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Institution: | (1) Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA |
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Abstract: | Waste generation and waste disposal are becoming increasingly prominent in the environmental arena, from a policy perspective
and in the context of delinking analysis. In general, waste generation is still increasing proportionally with income, and
economic and environmental costs associated to landfilling are also increasing. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis
of waste generation, incineration and landfill dynamics based on panel data for the EU25, to assess the effects of different drivers (economic, structural, policy) and the eventual differences between Western and
Eastern EU countries. We show that for waste generation there is still no Waste Kuznets Curve (WKC) trend, although elasticity
to income drivers appears lower than in the past. Landfill and other policy effects do not seem to provide backward incentives
for waste prevention, and in terms of landfill and incineration, as expected, they are respectively decreasing and increasing,
with policy acting as a strong driver. Eastern countries appear to be performing generally quite well, thus benefiting from
EU membership and related policies in terms of environmental performance. We can conclude that although absolute delinking
is far from being achieved for waste generation, there are some first positive signs of an increasing relative delinking for
waste generation and robust landfill diversion, and varying evidence of a significant role of the EU waste policies implemented
in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Our evidence suggests that if while landfill diversion is currently associated to a delinking
partly explained by EU policies, waste prevention must be the next objective of waste regulation efforts. |
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