Driving factors of e-waste recycling rate in 30 European countries: new evidence using a panel quantile regression of the EKC hypothesis coupled with the STIRPAT model

Abstract

Recycling of e-waste (waste electrical and electronic equipment) represents an important abatement of pressure on the environment, but recycling rates are still low. This study builds on common environmental economics approaches to identify the main driving forces of the e-waste recycling rate. The environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis was applied in the context of the STIRPAT (stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology) model to analyze data from 30 European countries over the period 2008–2018. Panel quantile regression was conducted to determine the relationship between e-waste recycling rate and economic growth, population, population density, energy intensity, energy efficiency, credit to private sector and e-waste collected. Strong evidence was found that the relationship between economic growth and e-waste recycling rate is an N-shaped curve, i.e., the e-waste recycling rate first increases with economic growth, then decreases in maturing economies and in mature economies starts increasing again as the economy continues to grow. In addition to the economic development stage of a country, e-waste collection was identified as an important determinant of the e-waste recycling rate, regardless of whether the already achieved recycling rate was low, medium or high. In all models, a rise of the collected e-waste quantity was linked to an increase in the recycling rate. Therefore, expanding e-waste collection represents a priority task for policy makers to achieve high e-waste recycling rates. Population, energy intensity and credit to private sector also had an impact and in tendency displayed a negative effect on the e-waste recycling rate; however, the impact of these variables was more relevant for countries with particularly low e-waste recycling rates.

The influence of government ideology on the rate of e-waste recycling in the European Union countries

“…Therefore, we employed panel quantile regression with non-additive fixed effects introduced by Powell [ 51 ] to overcome this problem. Similar to the studies conducted by Xu et al [ 52 ] and Boubellouta and Kusch-Brandt [ 8 ], we estimated and reported the findings for five quantiles, namely 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th quantiles of the conditional distribution of e-waste recycling rate. In this case, the lower quantiles were represented by the countries with lower e-waste recycling rates, while the upper quantiles were represented by the countries with higher e-waste recycling rates.…”

“…This study contributes a pioneering analysis in the literature by being the first to explore the influence of government ideology on e-waste recycling rates. Previous research (Boubellouta and Kusch-Brand [ 8 ], Yilmaz and Koyuncu [ 9 ], Constantinescu et al [ 10 ]) has overlooked government ideology as a factor impacting e-waste recycling, and this study addresses this gap by introducing a new determinant affecting e-waste recycling rates. As far as our knowledge extends, no empirical research has investigated the relationship between government ideology and e-waste recycling rates.…”

“…Additionally, energy intensity is used as a proxy for Technology. To examine the potential non-linear relationship between Affluence and Environmental Degradation, as proposed by the Environmental Kuznetz Curve (EKC) hypothesis, GDP per capita square is also included in empirical studies (see, for example, [ 8 ]).…”

“…In addition to the variables suggested by the IPAT and STIRPAT models, we also included total e-waste collected (kilograms per capita) (EWCOLL) as a control variable based on relevant literature [ 8 , 42 ]. EWCOLL data was obtained from Eurostat.…”

“…Cross-country studies on the determinants of e-waste recycling are relatively scarce. Boubellouta and Kusch-Brand [ 8 ] aimed to identify the driving factors of e-waste recycling rate in 30 European countries by utilizing data over the 2008–2018 period. According to the study’s results, economic growth and e-waste collection were found to be the main drivers of the e-waste recycling rate, while population, energy intensity, and credit to the private sector also had an impact on the e-waste recycling rate.…”