Impact of a Regulatory Target and External Factors on the Waste Efficiency of Italian Municipalities

Cinzia Daraio, Simone Di Leo and Leopold Simar
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Cinzia Daraio: Sapienza University of Rome
Simone Di Leo: Sapienza University of Rome

No 2024030, LIDAM Reprints ISBA from Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA)

Abstract: Due to increasing consumption and urbanisation, urban waste management and recycling are a primary concern in Italy. Italian waste collection underwent significant reform with the introduction of a sorted collection target of 65% of total collected waste in Legislative Decree No. 152/2006. In this article, we analyse the effect of this regulatory target on the efficiency of waste collection in 275 Italian municipalities in the years 2016–2019. We estimate the coefficients of the cost efficiencies of the sorted and unsorted waste without assuming functional forms for the efficient frontier or the distribution of efficiency. Our findings suggest that municipalities that met the 65% sorted waste target demonstrated higher efficiency as costs increased, whereas those that failed to meet the target demonstrated higher inefficiency as costs increased. Strong effects emerged for population and urban economic development on the success of waste collection, whereas only marginal effects were observed for population density and city size. To improve the situation of municipalities that are not meeting the 65% target, we propose several policy measures, including ‘neighbourhood solidarity’.

Keywords: Waste collection; Italy; directional FDH; smoothed approximations of nonparametric frontiers; waste economy; waste policy evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47
Date: 2024-07-28
Note: In: Waste Management & Research, 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aiz:louvar:2024030

DOI: 10.1177/0734242X241262698

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