Investigating the driving factors of the landfill disposal rate: a quantile regression for Italian data

Abstract

Despite the recommendation of the EU environmental policies, the Italian waste management system still needs of further assessment processes. Until recently, some areas, especially in the South, have experienced serious waste management crises, mainly due to low rates of separate waste collection. This paper aims to investigate the driving factors of the landfill disposal rate. This may allow to suggest some policy recipes in order to reduce the percentage of waste disposed of at landfills and, consequently, to promote healthy environment and the citizens’ health. Therefore, we propose a cluster analysis and a quantile regression technique to evaluate the magnitude of the socioeconomic and institutional factors on the landfill disposal rate. Results show that the separate collection process plays a key role to effectively reduce the waste disposed of in landfills. In this context, enhancing prevention, re-use, recycling and recovery activities becomes necessary.