Impact of the Number of Hours Spent at Home on the Volume of Municipal Waste Generated: Evidence from Tokyo during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study explores how changes in hours spent at home during the COVID-19 pandemic (February 2020–February 2022) affected the volume of municipal waste generated by households. Applying autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) to a time series model created to measure the volume of combustible waste, recyclable plastic, plastic bottles, glasses and cans, and used paper, this study finds that an increase in the number of hours spent at home elevated the amount of combustible waste, recyclable plastic bottles, and glass bottles and cans generated. The increase in the volume of waste during the pandemic tended to be related to increased demand for delivery and take-out containers, and the increase in combustible waste was likely caused by a surge in the use of unrecyclable plastic containers. Thus, the results of the study suggest the importance of enhancing the use of recyclable containers and the need for support to develop ways to spread the use of such containers.