IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i21p12008-d668597.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Eco-Productivity Analysis of the Municipal Solid Waste Service in the Apulia Region from 2010 to 2017

Author

Listed:
  • Corrado lo Storto

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy)

Abstract

This paper presents a dynamic efficiency study of the solid waste management in the municipalities of the Apulia region (Southern Italy). The study employs the non-parametric Global Malmquist Index to measure the change in productivity of the municipal solid waste service from 2010 to 2017. Three different DEA-based models are implemented to measure productivity. The first model computes the service productivity solely from the economic perspective, while the second and third models compute the service productivity from both the economic and environmental perspectives. Adopting two distinct perspectives provides a more comprehensive insight into the performance of the waste management service considering the productivity and the eco-productivity of service provision. The results from the productivity analysis show that, between 2010 and 2017, the municipal solid waste sector was still facing a transitional period characterized by low cost-efficiency and productivity growth measurements. Vice versa, the efficiency and productivity indicators improve when the analysis is performed accounting for the environmental impact. Indeed, both the eco-efficiency and eco-productivity measures increase from 2010 to 2017. Findings demonstrate the critical importance to include environmental indicators in the efficiency and productivity analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Corrado lo Storto, 2021. "Eco-Productivity Analysis of the Municipal Solid Waste Service in the Apulia Region from 2010 to 2017," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:12008-:d:668597
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12008/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12008/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Léopold Simar & Paul Wilson, 2000. "Statistical Inference in Nonparametric Frontier Models: The State of the Art," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 49-78, January.
    2. Paula Llanquileo-Melgarejo & María Molinos-Senante & Giulia Romano & Laura Carosi, 2021. "Evaluation of the Impact of Separative Collection and Recycling of Municipal Solid Waste on Performance: An Empirical Application for Chile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.
    3. Bel, Germà & Fageda, Xavier, 2010. "Empirical analysis of solid management waste costs: Some evidence from Galicia, Spain," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 187-193.
    4. Cheng, Gang & Qian, Zhenhua & Zervopoulos, Panagiotis, 2011. "Overcoming the infeasibility of super-efficiency DEA model: a model with generalized orientation," MPRA Paper 31991, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Bohm, Robert A. & Folz, David H. & Kinnaman, Thomas C. & Podolsky, Michael J., 2010. "The costs of municipal waste and recycling programs," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 54(11), pages 864-871.
    6. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 1998. "Sensitivity Analysis of Efficiency Scores: How to Bootstrap in Nonparametric Frontier Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 49-61, January.
    7. Suho Bae, 2010. "Public Versus Private Delivery Of Municipal Solid Waste Services: The Case Of North Carolina," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(3), pages 414-428, July.
    8. Hall, J. Patrick & Jones, Lonnie L., 1973. "Costs of Solid Waste Management in Rural Texas Communities," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 115-119, July.
    9. E. Dijkgraaf & R. H. J. M. Gradus & B. Melenberg, 2003. "Contracting out refuse collection," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 553-570, July.
    10. Pastor, Jesus T. & Lovell, C.A. Knox, 2005. "A global Malmquist productivity index," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 266-271, August.
    11. Barbara Antonioli & Massimo Filippini, 2002. "Optimal Size in the Waste Collection Sector," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 20(3), pages 239-252, May.
    12. -, 2011. "Are we building competitive and liveable cities?: Guidelines for developing eco-efficient and socially inclusive infrastructure," Coediciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 37700 edited by Escap, July.
    13. Contreras, Francisco & Hanaki, Keisuke & Aramaki, Toshiya & Connors, Stephen, 2008. "Application of analytical hierarchy process to analyze stakeholders preferences for municipal solid waste management plans, Boston, USA," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 52(7), pages 979-991.
    14. E. Dijkgraaf & R. Gradus, 2003. "Cost Savings of Contracting Out Refuse Collection," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 149-161, June.
    15. Kristyna Rybova, 2019. "Do Sociodemographic Characteristics in Waste Management Matter? Case Study of Recyclable Generation in the Czech Republic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-15, April.
    16. Simões, Pedro & Carvalho, Pedro & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2012. "Performance assessment of refuse collection services using robust efficiency measures," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 56-66.
    17. Mahlberg, Bernhard & Luptacik, Mikulas, 2014. "Eco-efficiency and eco-productivity change over time in a multisectoral economic system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(3), pages 885-897.
    18. Hall, J. Patrick & Jones, Lonnie L., 1973. "Costs Of Solid Waste Management In Rural Texas Communities," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 5(1), pages 1-5, July.
    19. Scott J. Callan & Janet M. Thomas, 2001. "Economies of Scale and Scope: A Cost Analysis of Municipal Solid Waste Services," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 77(4), pages 548-560.
    20. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Zhu, Joe, 2002. "Modeling undesirable factors in efficiency evaluation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 16-20, October.
    21. Giuseppe Lucio Gaeta & Stefano Ghinoi & Francesco Silvestri, 2017. "Municipal performance in waste recycling: an empirical analysis based on data from the Lombardy region (Italy)," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 337-352, October.
    22. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Kaoru Tone, 2007. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-45283-8, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kai He & Nan Zhu & Wu Jiang & Chuanjin Zhu, 2022. "Efficiency Evaluation of Chinese Provincial Industrial System Based on Network DEA Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-24, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rafael Benítez & Vicente Coll-Serrano & Vicente J. Bolós, 2021. "deaR-Shiny: An Interactive Web App for Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-19, June.
    2. Simões, Pedro & Carvalho, Pedro & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2012. "Performance assessment of refuse collection services using robust efficiency measures," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 56-66.
    3. Germa Bel & Anton Costas, 2006. "Do Public Sector Reforms Get Rusty? Local Privatization in Spain," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24.
    4. Gómez-Calvet, Roberto & Conesa, David & Gómez-Calvet, Ana Rosa & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2014. "Energy efficiency in the European Union: What can be learned from the joint application of directional distance functions and slacks-based measures?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 137-154.
    5. Graziano Abrate & Fabrizio Erbetta & Giovanni Fraquelli & Davide Vannoni, 2014. "The Costs of Disposal and Recycling: An Application to Italian Municipal Solid Waste Services," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(5), pages 896-909, May.
    6. Graziano Abrate & Fabrizio Erbetta & Giovanni Fraquelli & Davide Vannoni, 2012. "Size and Density Economies in Refuse Collection," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 274, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    7. Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda & Melania Mur, 2011. "Privatization, cooperation and costs of solid waste services in small towns," IREA Working Papers 201111, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Jul 2011.
    8. Dietz, Saskia & Richter, Magnus & Souren, Rainer, 2017. "Gebührenmaßstäbe als Einflussfaktoren auf die Höhe der Hausmüllgebühren: Systematik und varianzanalytische Untersuchung," Ilmenauer Schriften zur Betriebswirtschaftslehre, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, volume 1, number 12017.
    9. Fusco, Elisa & Allegrini, Veronica, 2020. "The role of spatial interdependence in local government cost efficiency: An application to waste Italian sector," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    10. Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda, 2008. "Privatization and competition in the delivery of local services: An empirical examination of the dual market hypothesis," Working Papers XREAP2008-04, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Apr 2008.
    11. Simões, Pedro & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2011. "How does the operational environment affect utility performance? A parametric study on the waste sector," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 695-702.
    12. Adel Hatami-Marbini & Aliasghar Arabmaldar & John Otu Asu, 2022. "Robust productivity growth and efficiency measurement with undesirable outputs: evidence from the oil industry," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 44(4), pages 1213-1254, December.
    13. Roland Zullo, 2019. "Explaining Privatization Failure: The Vice of Sweet Carrots and Hard Sticks," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 51(1), pages 111-128, March.
    14. Germa Bel & Anton Costas, 2004. "Do public sector reforms get rusty? An empirical analysis on privatization of solid waste collection," Public Economics 0409014, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Lombrano, Alessandro, 2009. "Cost efficiency in the management of solid urban waste," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 53(11), pages 601-611.
    16. Cuadrado-Ballesteros, Beatriz & García-Sánchez, Isabel-María & Prado-Lorenzo, José-Manuel, 2013. "Effect of modes of public services delivery on the efficiency of local governments: A two-stage approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 23-35.
    17. Franz R. Hahn, 2007. "Determinants of Bank Efficiency in Europe. Assessing Bank Performance Across Markets," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 31499, April.
    18. Elbert Dijkgraaf & Raymond Gradus, 2015. "Efficiency Effects of Unit-Based Pricing Systems and Institutional Choices of Waste Collection," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 61(4), pages 641-658, August.
    19. Gitto, Simone & Mancuso, Paolo, 2009. "Productivity change in Italian airports," MPRA Paper 34367, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Nadia M. Guerrero & Juan Aparicio & Daniel Valero-Carreras, 2022. "Combining Data Envelopment Analysis and Machine Learning," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:12008-:d:668597. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.