Impact of Municipal Waste Recycling and Renewable Energy Consumption on CO2 Emissions across the European Union (EU) Member Countries

Abstract

The world population maintains a growing trend and in turn, the amount of municipal waste is also increasing. Rising municipal waste quantity poses a challenge for human beings and the environment, therefore recycling becomes important for environmental sustainability and circular economy. This study explores the effects of municipal waste recycling and renewable energy on the environment sustainability proxied by CO2 emissions in EU member states over the period from 2004 to 2017 through panel cointegration and causality analyses. Recycling is considered an efficient way to reduce CO2 emission, but surprisingly our results indicate mixed findings. The causality analysis revealed no significant interaction among recycling rate, renewable energy and CO2 emissions. However, in the long run, the negative impact of recycling and renewable energy use on CO2 emissions were revealed but varied among the countries. Results indicate that increasing renewable energy consumption will play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These findings must raise awareness among policymakers that should focus on the adoption and implementation of different types of sustainable energy policies that can affect directly or indirectly renewable energy sector development.

Comparison of Consumption and Renewable Sources of Energy in European Union Countries—Sectoral Indicators, Economic Conditions and Environmental Impacts

“…The second strand of research focuses on the economic growth and environmental pollution nexus [11,17,[49][50][51][52][53][54]. This branch of research attempts to verify the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis [4,10,11,43,53].…”

“…Another perspective including an assessment of long-term and short-term correlations between renewable energy use, CO 2 emissions and municipal waste recycling has been provided in a study published by Bayar et al [52]. The findings of that study showed no significant correlation between recycling rate, renewable energy and CO 2 emissions.…”

“…In numerous available publications referenced as part of literature on the links between the economy, energy and environment, other researchers have also evaluated the impact of various socio-economic factors, demographic factors [51], technological factors [51] and other aspects and conditions that affect the ecosphere, the energy sector and the dynamics of environmental indicators. In this regard, there is a vast number of studies that focus on aspects of energy structure, energy and environmental R&D activities [53,58], public awareness [8,[59][60][61], energy efficiency [37,[62][63][64][65], eco-innovation [12], eco-efficiency [66], natural resources [47,67], municipal waste recycling [52], energy policy [60,65,68,69], education [8], health [23,41], the tourism sector [25], COVID-19 epidemic [70], energy prices [57,60], taxation [53,71], renewable energy technologies [22,27,72], etc., very often in connection with economic growth [46][47][48][49]53,63,73], energy planning system [59,…”

Risk Analysis of Public–Private Partnership Waste-to-Energy Incineration Projects from the Perspective of Rural Revitalization

“…Waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration projects are one kind of biomass power generation, which is considered resource-friendly and environment-friendly [1] and thus promoted by government authorities in the face of global climate change [2]. It is an important component of renewable energy, which could facilitate the optimization of the energy structure [3,4], the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions [5][6][7] and the promotion of economic growth [8]. WTE plants are widely adopted in a lot of countries and regions, including Accra of Ghana [9], Malaysia [10][11][12], Europe Union [13], Italy [14], Taiwan [15], Indonesia [16], Vietnam [17], Mainland China [18] and New Zealand [19].…”

Asymmetric Impact of Renewable Energy Consumption on Environment in Pakistan

“…Empirical results revealed a positive and significant association with financial development. Bayar et al (2021) described the association of municipal wastage, recycling energy, renewable sources of energy, energy usage with CO2 in European Union nations. The employed cointegration and casualty analysis were employed during 2004-2017.…”