Abstract
Municipal solid waste management has been a topic of interest of several authors over time, in particular the implementation and maintenance of waste collection programmes. Initially, pioneering studies focused on the economic aspects of the provided services. However, many authors later argued the costs of providing solid waste collection services should also be influenced by socio-economic and behavioural factors, exogenous to the municipalities. The present study will be developed in this context, looking, more broadly, to explain the factors influencing the decision-making of the Portuguese municipalities in implementing and maintaining programs of selective collection of solid waste, considering the economic, financial, technological and sociodemographic factors. The results show that, indeed as presented by several authors before, economic factors aren’t the only determinants that influence municipal costs concerning these services, as demographic, geographic and technological factors must be taken into account. Moreover, the enforced legislation also impacts the municipal costs due to municipalities being obliged to contribute to the success of these collection programs in order to fulfil the waste recovery targets. This implies that the costs of these services and the inherent infrastructures are usually financed by its citizens in the form of utilization taxes and also the state.
Highlights
The excessive production of waste arising both from the manufacturing process and populational consumption is a pressing issue that requires an urgent and collective solution
With the increasing awareness of populations regarding environmental issues in general, and waste accumulation in particular, the pursuit for feasible solutions has become essential as proved by the continuous emerging legislation for environmental protection. Such led to the creation and subsequent implementation of policies and municipal solid waste (MSW) collection programs to divert refuse from open dump sites and direct them to appropriate infrastructures for treatment and recovery and, fulfil the imposed legislative targets
Many studies were developed in order to analyse the impact of costs of solid waste collection services in municipalities through the use of economic variables inherent in the service: frequency of collection, type of financing, amount of waste produced, proportion of waste generated per capita, whether the service provided is
Summary
The excessive production of waste arising both from the manufacturing process and populational consumption is a pressing issue that requires an urgent and collective solution. The developed econometric model showed that the decision to implement and maintain sorted collection programs is not explained solely by economic factors; demographic variables have a strong impact on the explanation of the annual spending on environment with municipal waste management, as well as geographical and behavioural factors. The significance of the municipalities of Greater Lisbon and Greater Oporto, explain an additional positive effect on municipal spending: there is a larger population, more demanding and more concerned with environmental issues. This means that more fuel, other raw materials and human resources are required during the collection service. G_MD ONGAMB DGLISBOA OR DGPORTO YR=2005 YR=2006 YR=2007 YR=2008 YR=2009 YR=2010 YR=2011 YR=2012
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