Evaluating the efficiency of municipal solid waste collection and disposal in the Yangtze River Delta of China: A DEA-model

Abstract

ABSTRACT As the “sixth largest city group in the world”, the Yangtze River Delta region is an important economic growth point and core economic area in China. While achieving rapid economic growth, the amount of waste generated is increasing day by day, and the investment in environmental protection is constantly increasing. Among them, MSW collection and disposal funds accounted for 57.40% of the fixed assets investment in environmental sanitation in 2017. To improve the efficiency of existing environmental protection investment, this paper is based on the existing academic research at China and abroad, with the help of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. This paper analyzed the economic indicators of 27 cities in the Yangtze River Delta for MSW collection, transportation and disposal to measure economic efficiency, identify and improve inefficiencies. The research results show that the average efficiency of the 27 cities in the Yangtze River Delta is at a relatively high level. Six cities have the most effective comprehensive technical efficiency. These six cities constitute the effective frontier of the municipal solid waste transfer system. The overall efficiency has a comparative advantage; 9 cities have the best pure technical efficiency, accounting for 33 of all cities. %, the pure technical efficiency of the remaining 18 cities is low, indicating that these cities have not fully utilized their resource input under the current scale, and the efficiency of resource utilization needs to be improved. Finally, this paper proposes suggestions for improvement from the perspective of environmental sustainability. To improve MSW collection and disposal efficiency, differentiated management should be implemented in cities in the Yangtze River Delta. Implications: This paper conducts an empirical analysis on the efficiency of MSW collection and disposal in the Yangtze River Delta in China in 2017. Based on the calculation of the DEA model, our conclusion is that although the collection and disposal system of MSW in the Yangtze River Delta has been significantly improved, the level of collection and disposal of some MSW has not reached the optimal level: (1) Comprehensive technical efficiency is the most effective Cities accounted for 22% of the total number of cities studied. (2) 33% of the cities in the Yangtze River Delta achieve the best pure technical efficiency; (3) Among the 27 cities, 6 cities have the best scale efficiency, and the remaining 21 cities have not reached the best scale efficiency.