Generation of Household Solid Waste in OECD Countries: An Empirical Analysis Using Macroeconomic Data

Johnstone, Nick; Labonne, Julien

doi:10.2307/3655808

Cited by 138 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…For instance, Mazzanti and Zoboli [7] investigated the decoupling of municipal solid waste generation, incineration, recycling and landfill in 25 EU Member States during 1995-2005, finding evidence for relative decoupling, meaning that amount of waste was generated was growing at a slower pace than GDP. Johnstone and Labonne [29] confirmed this trend by analyzing data on municipal solid waste generation in OECD countries during 1980-2000. They found evidence that the amount of waste generated grows slower than income, suggesting the occurrence of relative decoupling.…”

Section: Waste Policies In Europementioning

confidence: 64%

Policy Mixes to Achieve Absolute Decoupling: A Case Study of Municipal Waste Management

Montevecchi

2016

Sustainability

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Studying the effectiveness of environmental policies is of primary importance to address the unsustainable use of resources that threatens the entire society. Thus, the aim of this paper is to investigate on the effectiveness of environmental policy instruments to decouple waste generation and landfilling from economic growth. In order to do so, the paper analyzes the case study of the Slovakian municipality of Palarikovo, which has drastically improved its waste management system between 2000 and 2012, through the utilization of differentiated waste taxes and awareness-raising and education campaigns, as well as targeting increased recycling and municipal composting. We find evidence of absolute decoupling for landfilled waste and waste generation, the latter being more limited in time and magnitude. These policy instruments could therefore play an important role in municipalities that are still lagging behind in waste management. More specifically, this policy mix was effective in moving away from landfilling, initiating recycling systems, and to some extent decreasing waste generation. Yet, a more explicit focus on waste prevention will be needed to address the entirety of the problem effectively.

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Section: Waste Policies In Europementioning

confidence: 64%

Policy Mixes to Achieve Absolute Decoupling: A Case Study of Municipal Waste Management

Montevecchi

2016

Sustainability

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“…Due to the relatively better data available and policy relevance, most studies have focused on macro/meso settings (Johnstone and Labonne, 2004;Shinkuma and Managi, 2011;Mazzanti and Montini, 2013). Relevant factors appear to belong to social, economic and policy spheres.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Waste prevention and social preferences: the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations

Cecere

Mancinelli

Mazzanti

2014

Ecological Economics

180

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Though reduction is at the top of the waste management hierarchy, EU policies have historically introduced waste management incentives mainly concerning waste recovery and recycling, in addition to actions aimed at reducing disposal in landfills. Only very recently have EU policies started defining targets for waste reduction. Against this backdrop, we aim to examine whether individual behavior towards waste reduction is more strongly driven by extrinsic motivations such as social norms, or intrinsic motivations such as purely altruistic preferences. We exploit a large new survey that covers thousands of individuals for the EU27, to test the role of motivations when people are faced with collective management of the public good. We find that diverse motivations are behind the reduction of food waste: extrinsic motivations nevertheless increase the likelihood of producing more waste. Green consumption / recycling-oriented attitudes and individualistic thinking about waste management relate to 'waste producers'. This shows that in order to go beyond a recycling-oriented society towards reduction of the source of waste externality -its generation -the nature of social preferences matters. Behavior patterns leading to waste reduction are less socially oriented, less exposed to peer pressure and more reliant upon purely 'altruistic' social attitudes. Policy makers should learn from the relevant insights on social behavior we here address if our societies aim to fully integrate the idea of waste reduction alongside recycling in the future.

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“…It is believed that waste generated increases along with the improvement of living standards [2]; waste generation scales less than linearly as household size increases [49,50]; the dependency rate may result in different patterns of waste generation since households with dependents have very different consumption patterns compared to households with only working people [51]; while residents with higher education levels will have higher environmental awareness and produce less waste [52], the relationship between education and MSW generation is not definite [53]. Community and demographic characteristics, recycling policies, and public involvement in policy design will affect public participation in solid waste recycling [54].…”

Section: Variables and The Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Crowding-Out Effects of Garbage Fees and Voluntary Source Separation Programs on Waste Reduction: Evidence from China

2016

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This paper examines how and to what degree government policies of garbage fees and voluntary source separation programs, with free indoor containers and garbage bags, can affect the effectiveness of municipal solid waste (MSW) management, in the sense of achieving a desirable reduction of per capita MSW generation. Based on city-level panel data for years 1998-2012 in China, our empirical analysis indicates that per capita MSW generated is increasing with per capita disposable income, average household size, education levels of households, and the lagged per capita MSW. While both garbage fees and source separation programs have separately led to reductions in per capita waste generation, the interaction of the two policies has resulted in an increase in per capita waste generation due to the following crowding-out effects: Firstly, the positive effect of income dominates the negative effect of the garbage fee. Secondly, there are crowding-out effects of mandatory charging system and the subsidized voluntary source separation on per capita MSW generation. Thirdly, small subsidies and tax punishments have reduced the intrinsic motivation for voluntary source separation of MSW. Thus, compatible fee charging system, higher levels of subsidies, and well-designed public information and education campaigns are required to promote household waste source separation and reduction.

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Generation of Household Solid Waste in OECD Countries: An Empirical Analysis Using Macroeconomic Data

Cited by 138 publications

References 9 publications

Policy Mixes to Achieve Absolute Decoupling: A Case Study of Municipal Waste Management

Policy Mixes to Achieve Absolute Decoupling: A Case Study of Municipal Waste Management

Waste prevention and social preferences: the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations

The Crowding-Out Effects of Garbage Fees and Voluntary Source Separation Programs on Waste Reduction: Evidence from China

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