Removing non-reusable plastic bottled water: sustainability vs. health?

Ariadna Garcia-Prado, Beomsoo Kim and Isabel Rodriguez-Tejedo

Economics Letters, 2025, vol. 254, issue C

Abstract: This study examines the unintended consequences of a policy banning non-reusable bottled water in public institutions in Navarra, Spain, focusing on its impact on vending machine beverage consumption. Utilizing a difference-in-difference (DID) methodology, we compare the consumption from vending machines at a public university affected by the ban with a neighboring private university that was not. Our analysis reveals a significant substitution effect: the consumption of carbonated and non-carbonated sugary sweetened beverages (SSBs) increased by 44.1 % on daily basis per vending machine. This shift equates to an additional consumption of 77 g of sugar per day and vending machine, highlighting a health trade-off for environmental gains. The study contributes to the environmental and health economics literature by providing causal evidence on the impact of plastic-free policies.

Keywords: Bottled-plastic water; Sugary drinks; Trade-off; Impact evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H8 I1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176525003088
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:254:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525003088

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112471

Access Statistics for this article

Economics Letters is currently edited by Economics Letters Editorial Office

More articles in Economics Letters from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().