TY - JOUR
T1 - Waste generation, waste disposal and policy effectiveness: Evidence on decoupling from the European Union
AU - Mazzanti, Massimiliano
AU - Zoboli, Roberto
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Waste generation andwaste disposal are issues that are becoming increasingly prominent in the environmental
arena both from a policy perspective and in the context of delinking analysis.Waste generation is
still increasing proportionally with income, and economic and environmental costs associated to landfilling
are also increasing. Thus, the need of accelerating the eventual delinking process by the introduction
of policies at all stages of waste production and disposal.
This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of waste generation, incineration, recycling and landfill
dynamics based on panel data for the EU25, to assess the effects of different drivers (economic, structural,
policies) and the eventual heterogeneity on such evidence between western and eastern EU countries.
We show that for waste generation there is still no absolute delinking trend, although elasticity to
income drivers appears lower than in the past. Landfill and other policy effects do not seem to provide
backward incentives forwaste prevention. Regarding landfill and incineration, the two trends, as expected,
are respectively decreasing and increasing, with policy effects providing a strong driver. It demonstrates
the effectiveness of policy even in this early stage of policy implementation. This is essential for an ex
post evaluation of existing landfill and incineration directives. Nevertheless, it signals the risk of widening
gaps between early adopters and countries which postpone ratification and implementation.
It is also worth noting that EU15 and EU10 groups of countries show some different waste trends and
driving forces of waste generation and landfill diversion hen analysed separately. We may conclude that
although complete delinking is far from being achieved – especially for waste generation, there are some
positive signals, and signs of a quite significant role of the EUwaste policies implemented in the late 1990s
and early 2000s.
AB - Waste generation andwaste disposal are issues that are becoming increasingly prominent in the environmental
arena both from a policy perspective and in the context of delinking analysis.Waste generation is
still increasing proportionally with income, and economic and environmental costs associated to landfilling
are also increasing. Thus, the need of accelerating the eventual delinking process by the introduction
of policies at all stages of waste production and disposal.
This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of waste generation, incineration, recycling and landfill
dynamics based on panel data for the EU25, to assess the effects of different drivers (economic, structural,
policies) and the eventual heterogeneity on such evidence between western and eastern EU countries.
We show that for waste generation there is still no absolute delinking trend, although elasticity to
income drivers appears lower than in the past. Landfill and other policy effects do not seem to provide
backward incentives forwaste prevention. Regarding landfill and incineration, the two trends, as expected,
are respectively decreasing and increasing, with policy effects providing a strong driver. It demonstrates
the effectiveness of policy even in this early stage of policy implementation. This is essential for an ex
post evaluation of existing landfill and incineration directives. Nevertheless, it signals the risk of widening
gaps between early adopters and countries which postpone ratification and implementation.
It is also worth noting that EU15 and EU10 groups of countries show some different waste trends and
driving forces of waste generation and landfill diversion hen analysed separately. We may conclude that
although complete delinking is far from being achieved – especially for waste generation, there are some
positive signals, and signs of a quite significant role of the EUwaste policies implemented in the late 1990s
and early 2000s.
KW - Municipal waste
KW - Policy effectivenes
KW - Municipal waste
KW - Policy effectivenes
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/125093
U2 - 10.1016/j.resconrec.2008.07.003
DO - 10.1016/j.resconrec.2008.07.003
M3 - Article
SN - 0921-3449
VL - 52
SP - 1221
EP - 1234
JO - Resources, Conservation and Recycling
JF - Resources, Conservation and Recycling
ER -