Prioritizing countries for implementing waste recycling under socioeconomic supports

Abstract

The implementation of waste recycling in a country has been proved to be substantially affected by the socioeconomic conditions. Whether and to what extent a country is suitable for initiating waste recycling under the current socioeconomic supports has not been explored adequately. In this study, we adopt an integrated socioeconomic index system involving five dimensions (economic, social, technological, market and consciousness) to represent the socioeconomic supports for waste recycling. Combining the index system and the improved matter-element extension model, we quantitatively stratify the holistic suitability (five ranks) for waste recycling in 68 empirical countries under different levels of socioeconomic supports. The results indicate that the developed countries in North America, Western Europe, Northern Europe and Oceania have the highest suitability for waste recycling attributed to outstanding socioeconomic conditions. Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland are divided into Rank I from both the holistic suitability and respective socioeconomic dimension perspectives. Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Czech pertain to Rank II, limited by the economic and technological conditions. Social condition is a limiting factor for some emerging economies and resource-based countries such as Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. Market condition is a limiting factor for some industrial powers and resource-based countries, such as China and Saudi Arabia. The findings of this study provide the global countries with references to being well-informed of socioeconomic supports for waste recycling and directions for follow-up efforts in waste management.