Embedding landfill diversion in economic, geographical and policy settings

This chapter has analysed the process of delinking in relation to landfill trends by embedding the dynamics in a framework that simultaneously includes economic, institutional, and geographical and policy variables. On the basis of the recently observed decreasing trend in landfilling which is occurring at EU level, the aim was to investigating in depth what main drivers may be responsible for such a phenomenon, and whether differences may be observed focusing the lens on a very decentralised provincial based setting. We exploit a rich panel dataset stemming from official sources (Italian environmental agency) merged with other provincial and regional based information, covering all 103 Italian provinces over 1999-2005. Such an extended, decentralised and recent source of data is of major interest for investigations dealing with waste processes and policy valuation, where evidence is typically scattered and rare given paucity of high quality data. The case study on Italy is worth being considered provided that Italy is a main country in the EU, thus it offers important pieces on information on the evaluation of policies like the 1999 landfill Directive. Then, its problematic economic, institutional and environmental performance heterogeneity allows an interesting analysis of how economic and policy levers impact on the dynamics of landfilling in such settings. Finally, being waste management and landfill policies implemented at a much decentralised level, it provides food for thought for policy making processes that have operated or will operate along similar directions. Econometric investigations have focused on both regional and provincial disaggregation. The two set of results are consistent to each other, with some minor differences. Overall, we observe a significant delinking between economic growth and landfilling of waste. Nevertheless, the case study shows how the baseline EKC relationship between income and environmental pressure may be not sufficient to explain landfill diversion. Other factors impact on environmental performances. We cannot rely merely on economic growth to reverse the income-environment relationship. In fact, if it is confirmed that the sign of the income-landfill diversion trend is negative, since we already observe a descending path in terms of waste landfilling, this link turns out to be not the key one. Structural factors, like population density, highly matter . This means that other things being equal the geographical embedding and the economic (market and non market) costs of landfill investments are drivers of landfill diversion. Then, some specifications also highlight the role of tourism: local systems relying on tourism tend to avoid landfilling as a waste management strategy, as additional opportunity costs may arise and negative externalities could affect the business.