IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sza/wpaper/wpapers367.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An In-Depth Investigation into the Relationship Between Municipal Solid Waste Generation and Economic Growth in the City of Cape Town

Author

Listed:
  • Carmen van der Merwe

    (Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University)

  • Martin de Wit

    (Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University)

Abstract

Issues of landfill scarcity are propelling cities and countries to direct policy instruments towards waste management. An objective of achieving a green economy, of which there is decoupling of waste, has become the forefront of policy design in many cities around the globe. The City of Cape Town (CCT), facing similar landfill scarcity issues, has begun taking steps towards waste minimisation. To determine whether it is possible for the City to rely on economic growth to achieve absolute decoupling of waste, this study investigates the long- and short-run relationship between economic growth and municipal solid waste generation. This is done using both time series regression analysis and decoupling calculations. Furthermore, the Waste Kuznets Curve is investigated. Socio-economic and policy drivers of waste generation are included in the investigation to inform policy design. This study finds that the CCT has been experiencing long-run relative decoupling of waste, with short-run fluctuations of absolute decoupling during economic recessions. No strong long-run relationships between socio-economic variables and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generation for the CCT are found, however, in the short run it is deduced that population density is positively related to per capita MSW generation. The Think Twice waste minimisation programme, as a potential policy driver of MSW generation, is evaluated using a segmented linear regression. It is found that the Think Twice programme only has had temporal effects of reducing MSW generation, and that much of the reduction in MSW generation is rather explained by exogenous economic shocks, such as the 2008/2009 economic crash.

Suggested Citation

  • Carmen van der Merwe & Martin de Wit, 2021. "An In-Depth Investigation into the Relationship Between Municipal Solid Waste Generation and Economic Growth in the City of Cape Town," Working Papers 07/2021, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics, revised 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers367
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2021/wp072021/wp072021.2.pdf
    File Function: Revised version (version 2), 2021
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Islam, Faridul & Shahbaz , Muhammad & Butt, Muhammad Sabihuddin, 2013. "Is There an Environmental Kuznets Curve for Bangladesh? Evidence from ARDL Bounds Testing Approach," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 36(4), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Heming Wang & Seiji Hashimoto & Qiang Yue & Yuichi Moriguchi & Zhongwu Lu, 2013. "Decoupling Analysis of Four Selected Countries," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 17(4), pages 618-629, August.
    3. Emeka Nkoro & Aham Kelvin Uko, 2016. "Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration technique: application and interpretation," Journal of Statistical and Econometric Methods, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 5(4), pages 1-3.
    4. Hongyun Han & Zhijian Zhang & Sheng Xia, 2016. "The Crowding-Out Effects of Garbage Fees and Voluntary Source Separation Programs on Waste Reduction: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Yuzuru Miyata & Hiroyuki Shibusawa & Nahid Hossain, 2013. "An Economic Analysis of Municipal Solid Waste Management of Toyohashi City, Japan: Evidences from Environmental Kuznets Curve," ERSA conference papers ersa13p137, European Regional Science Association.
    6. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    7. Johansen, Soren & Juselius, Katarina, 1990. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Inference on Cointegration--With Applications to the Demand for Money," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 52(2), pages 169-210, May.
    8. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    9. M. Hashem Pesaran & Yongcheol Shin & Richard J. Smith, 2001. "Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 289-326.
    10. Granger, C. W. J., 1981. "Some properties of time series data and their use in econometric model specification," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 121-130, May.
    11. Tutulmaz, Onur, 2015. "Environmental Kuznets Curve time series application for Turkey: Why controversial results exist for similar models?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 73-81.
    12. Timothy Köhler & Martin de Wit, 2019. "Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation: Investigating the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve for local and global pollutants in South Africa," Working Papers 04/2019, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    13. Carattini, Stefano & Baranzini, Andrea & Lalive, Rafael, 2018. "Is Taxing Waste a Waste of Time? Evidence from a Supreme Court Decision," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 131-151.
    14. Marcel Kohler, 2013. "CO2 Emissions, Energy Consumption, Income and Foreign Trade: A South African Perspective," Working Papers 356, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    15. Nick Johnstone & Julien Labonne, 2004. "Generation of Household Solid Waste in OECD Countries: An Empirical Analysis Using Macroeconomic Data," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 80(4).
    16. Beede, David N & Bloom, David E, 1995. "The Economics of Municipal Solid Waste," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 10(2), pages 113-150, August.
    17. William T. Harbaugh & Arik Levinson & David Molloy Wilson, 2002. "Reexamining The Empirical Evidence For An Environmental Kuznets Curve," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(3), pages 541-551, August.
    18. Arrow, Kenneth & Bolin, Bert & Costanza, Robert & Dasgupta, Partha & Folke, Carl & Holling, C.S. & Jansson, Bengt-Owe & Levin, Simon & Mäler, Karl-Göran & Perrings, Charles & Pimentel, David, 1996. "Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 104-110, February.
    19. Engle, Robert & Granger, Clive, 2015. "Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 39(3), pages 106-135.
    20. Lakhan, Calvin, 2015. "Evaluating the effects of unit based waste disposal schemes on the collection of household recyclables in Ontario, Canada," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 38-45.
    21. Massimiliano Mazzanti & Roberto Zoboli, 2009. "Municipal Waste Kuznets Curves: Evidence on Socio-Economic Drivers and Policy Effectiveness from the EU," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 44(2), pages 203-230, October.
    22. Kohler, Marcel, 2013. "CO2 emissions, energy consumption, income and foreign trade: A South African perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1042-1050.
    23. Ehrlich, Isaac, 1975. "The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment: A Question of Life and Death," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(3), pages 397-417, June.
    24. Cameron, Samuel, 1994. "A review of the econometric evidence on the effects of capital punishment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 23(1-2), pages 197-214.
    25. Choe, Chongwoo & Fraser, Iain, 1999. "An Economic Analysis of Household Waste Management," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 234-246, September.
    26. Raymond, Leigh, 2004. "Economic Growth as Environmental Policy? Reconsidering the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(3), pages 327-348, December.
    27. Juan Carlos Trujillo Lora & Bladimir Carrillo Bermúdez & Carlos Andrés Charris Vizcaíno & Wilman Javier Iglesias Pinedo, 2013. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC): an analysis landfilled solid waste in Colombia," Revista Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, December.
    28. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Jalil, Abdul & Dube, Smile, 2010. "Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC): Times series evidence from Portugal," MPRA Paper 27443, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    29. Sjöström, Magnus & Östblom, Göran, 2010. "Decoupling waste generation from economic growth -- A CGE analysis of the Swedish case," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 1545-1552, May.
    30. Thomas F. Stinson & Andrea Lubov, 1982. "Segmented Regression, Threshold Effects, and Police Expenditures in Small Cities," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(4), pages 738-746.
    31. Jalil, Abdul & Mahmud, Syed F., 2009. "Environment Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions: A cointegration analysis for China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5167-5172, December.
    32. Costanza, Robert, 1995. "Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 89-90, November.
    33. Isaac Ehrlich, 1996. "Crime, Punishment, and the Market for Offenses," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 43-67, Winter.
    34. Gangolells, Marta & Casals, Miquel & Forcada, Núria & Macarulla, Marcel, 2014. "Analysis of the implementation of effective waste management practices in construction projects and sites," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 99-111.
    35. Sidique, Shaufique F. & Joshi, Satish V. & Lupi, Frank, 2010. "Factors influencing the rate of recycling: An analysis of Minnesota counties," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 242-249.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Onafowora, Olugbenga A. & Owoye, Oluwole, 2014. "Bounds testing approach to analysis of the environment Kuznets curve hypothesis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 47-62.
    2. Chiu, Yi-Bin, 2017. "Carbon dioxide, income and energy: Evidence from a non-linear model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 279-288.
    3. Bölük, Gülden & Mert, Mehmet, 2015. "The renewable energy, growth and environmental Kuznets curve in Turkey: An ARDL approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 587-595.
    4. Muhammad, Shahbaz & Lean, Hooi Hooi & Muhammad, Shahbaz Shabbir, 2011. "Environmental Kuznets Curve and the role of energy consumption in Pakistan," MPRA Paper 34929, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 22 Nov 2011.
    5. Anh-Tu Nguyen & Shih-Hao Lu & Phuc Thanh Thien Nguyen, 2021. "Validating and Forecasting Carbon Emissions in the Framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve: The Case of Vietnam," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-38, May.
    6. Rafindadi, Abdulkadir Abdulrashid, 2016. "Does the need for economic growth influence energy consumption and CO2 emissions in Nigeria? Evidence from the innovation accounting test," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1209-1225.
    7. Tiba, Sofien & Frikha, Mohamed, 2019. "The controversy of the resource curse and the environment in the SDGs background: The African context," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 437-452.
    8. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Lean, Hooi Hooi & Shabbir, Muhammad Shahbaz, 2012. "Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis in Pakistan: Cointegration and Granger causality," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 2947-2953.
    9. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Jalil, Abdul & Dube, Smile, 2010. "Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC): Times series evidence from Portugal," MPRA Paper 27443, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Rafindadi, Abdulkadir Abdulrashid, 2016. "Revisiting the concept of environmental Kuznets curve in period of energy disaster and deteriorating income: Empirical evidence from Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 274-284.
    11. Pata, Ugur Korkut, 2018. "The influence of coal and noncarbohydrate energy consumption on CO2 emissions: Revisiting the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for Turkey," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 1115-1123.
    12. Charfeddine, Lanouar & Mrabet, Zouhair, 2017. "The impact of economic development and social-political factors on ecological footprint: A panel data analysis for 15 MENA countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 138-154.
    13. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Haouas, Ilham & Hoang, Thi Hong Van, 2019. "Economic growth and environmental degradation in Vietnam: Is the environmental Kuznets curve a complete picture?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 197-218.
    14. Paresh Kumar Narayan & Russell Smyth, 2006. "Dead man walking: an empirical reassessment of the deterrent effect of capital punishment using the bounds testing approach to cointegration," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(17), pages 1975-1989.
    15. Pascalau, Razvan & Qirjo, Dhimitri, 2017. "TTIP and the Environmental Kuznets Curve," MPRA Paper 80192, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Ahmad, Najid & Du, Liangsheng, 2017. "Effects of energy production and CO2 emissions on economic growth in Iran: ARDL approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 521-537.
    17. Zouheyr Gheraia & Sawssan Saadaoui & Hanane Abdelli & Naeimah Fahad S. Almawishir & Naif Nadi Abaalkaif, 2023. "Does Financial Development Really Improve Environmental Quality in Al-Jouf Region? Empirical Contribution to the Environmental Politics," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(4), pages 194-201, July.
    18. Zhihui Lv & Amanda M. Y. Chu & Michael McAleer & Wing-Keung Wong, 2019. "Modelling Economic Growth, Carbon Emissions, and Fossil Fuel Consumption in China: Cointegration and Multivariate Causality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-35, October.
    19. Pal, Debdatta & Mitra, Subrata Kumar, 2017. "The environmental Kuznets curve for carbon dioxide in India and China: Growth and pollution at crossroad," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 371-385.
    20. Ali, Wajahat & Abdullah, Azrai & Azam, Muhammad, 2017. "Re-visiting the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for Malaysia: Fresh evidence from ARDL bounds testing approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 990-1000.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Waste Kuznets Curve; Environmental Kuznets Curve; Decoupling; Waste Economics; Regression Analysis; Environmental Economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C01 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Econometrics
    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • F63 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Economic Development
    • F64 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Environment
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • O44 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Environment and Growth
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sza:wpaper:wpapers367. 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: Melt van Schoor (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/desunza.html .

    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.