Department of Mathematics for Economics, University of Valencia, Avd. Tarongers S/N, Valencia, Spain.
Departamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Avda. Vicuña Mackenna, 4860 Santiago, Chile; Institute of Sustainable Processes, University of Valladolid, C/Mergelina, S/N, Valladolid, Spain.
J Environ Manage. 2023 Jan 1;325(Pt B):116668. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116668. Epub 2022 Nov 4.
Improving the management of municipal solid waste (MSW) is fundamental to promote circular economy and sustainability. Unsorted waste involves negative environmental impacts which often are ignored in economic feasibility studies due to its difficult valuation. In this study the shadow price of unsorted waste using the directional distance function was estimated. This methodological approach also allowed us to compute eco-efficiency scores of a set of municipalities in the provision of MSW services. The empirical application focused on a sample of 119 Chilean municipalities. The results showed that the average shadow price of unsorted waste was 297.66 €/ton which means that the environmental cost of left waste as unsorted was 297.66 € per ton. A regression tree model illustrated that population density, tourism intensity and the generation of waste per capita significantly influenced the shadow price of unsorted waste. Moreover, it was illustrated that Chilean municipalities were very inefficient in the management of MSW since the average eco-efficiency score was 0.272. The findings from this study reveal that additional and alternative policies should be adopted to improve the management of MSW and increase its recycling rate.
改善城市固体废物（MSW）管理对于促进循环经济和可持续发展至关重要。未分类的废物会对环境造成负面影响，但由于其难以估值，在经济可行性研究中往往被忽视。本研究使用方向距离函数估计了未分类废物的影子价格。这种方法还允许我们计算提供 MSW 服务的一组城市的生态效率得分。实证应用集中在智利 119 个城市的样本上。结果表明，未分类废物的平均影子价格为 297.66 欧元/吨，这意味着未分类的废物所造成的环境成本为每吨 297.66 欧元。回归树模型表明，人口密度、旅游强度和人均废物产生量显著影响未分类废物的影子价格。此外，研究表明，智利各城市在管理 MSW 方面效率非常低下，因为平均生态效率得分为 0.272。本研究的结果表明，应该采取额外的替代政策来改善 MSW 的管理并提高其回收利用率。
