The effect of Door-to-Door on separate collection of plastic packaging: evidence from Catalonia

Germà Bel () and Joël Bühler
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Germà Bel: Universitat de Barcelona & IREA-UB
Joël Bühler: Universitat de Barcelona & IREA-UB

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, 2025, vol. 27, issue 3, No 3, 377-403

Abstract: Abstract In this article, we estimate the causal effect of the Door-to-Door waste collection policy on the collection of plastic waste in Catalonia. We use municipality-level data on the share of separately collected light packaging and apply a Difference-in-Differences framework. We find that Door-to-Door increased the share of separated light packaging by 80% compared to untreated units at the end of the sample period. Furthermore, our evidence indicates that there are no differences of Door-to-Door designs with source-separation of light packaging from other recyclable waste components compared to those where light packaging waste is collected with other materials and separated post-source. These findings highlight that Door-to-Door can be a highly effective measure to increase separate collection of light packaging, a precondition for ambitious plastics recycling goals legislated by policy makers.

Keywords: Plastic waste; Door-to-Door; Recycling; Catalonia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K23 L65 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10018-024-00428-x

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