Catching-up in waste management. Evidence from the EU

In this work we test for the presence of convergence in the main municipal solid waste-related indicators across EU countries over the years 1995-2009. We analyse in particular both sides of the waste sector: generation, considering waste collected per capita, and the main disposal choices, i.e. landfilling, recycling and incineration. We believe this is a relevant exercise, considering that in the last two decades the waste sector has experienced a profound transformation at European level. Landfill is losing its primary role as the main disposal technology, and other activities, like recycling and incineration, are becoming increasingly important. In this context, beta and sigma tests of convergence can tell us more about the distribution of the three different rival choices of waste disposal, as well as about waste generation, by assessing the presence of convergence and its main drivers. With convergence we mean here testing, on the one hand, if countries which are lagging behind are actually catching up more virtuous countries (in term of use of preferred waste management technologies, like recycling and incineration) and, on the other hand, testing if the disparities between countries are decreasing over time. We believe in particular that several factors may have influenced this trend, like consumption per capita, the presence of environmental policy and the level of a country innovative activities measure by a coherent stock of patent applications in waste related sectors.