Post-closure Cost Efficiency in Public Versus Private Landfills: The Case of Emilia-Romagna (Italy)

Abstract

Waste management systems have developed in recent years toward the adoption of sustainable management principles and practices, such as circular economy, zero waste, resource efficiency, waste avoidance, re-use, and recycling. Nevertheless, landfills continue to be used for waste disposal despite their risks related to contamination and effects on urban development. Most research on landfills focuses on their operational and technical aspects, while the performance and cost efficiency in managing landfills is less commonly studied, especially their post-closure management. However, improving efficiency is very relevant in the context of scarce public sector resources. This paper, therefore, analyzes the efficiency of post-closure management of landfills. Drawing on agency and stewardship theories, we focus on the difference in efficiency between public and private management of post-closure landfills. We use a linear mixed regression model to analyze data from 2015 to 2018 relating to 54 landfills (79% of which are privately managed) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The results show that public management is more efficient than private management. Results contribute to defining drivers of cost and confirming a disparity in the performance of private and public management. Our results cast doubt on the assumption, which is prevalent in new public management theory, that private operators are more efficient than public ones. We conclude by highlighting that to reach efficiency, it is better to increase the effectiveness of regulation in terms of value for money, without pre-determined preferences for the type of management.