Does the development of delivery industry increase the production of municipal solid waste?—An empirical study of China

Abstract

In the past decade, main sources of China’s municipal solid waste (MSW) have significantly changed with the economic and social development. Packaging waste produced by the express delivery industry has been an important part of MSW in recent year. Meanwhile, few studies have examined real impacts of the development of the express delivery industry on MSW production through empirical analysis via quantitative approach. Therefore, this paper hopes to analyze major indicators (per capita express delivery amount, number of postal workers and postal outlets) of express delivery industry and other factors’ influence on the production of China's MSW by panel data regression to fill research gap. The results show that the growing of per capita express delivery amount has increased MSW production. This phenomenon is more obvious in the Western region. However, it also shows that the appropriate configuration of postal workers and postal outlets may alleviate the MSW problem. Other control variables of this research such as degree of aging, educational level, Internet development also affect MSW production through various ways. The major conclusion of the paper is that the development of the express delivery industry can significantly affect the production of MSW in China. Therefore, it suggests the Chinese government to upgrade current express delivery industry by sustainable means and promote the educational level of environmental protection.