Development of a three-dimensional sustainable waste management scale for small rapidly industrialising states

This paper develops and validates a scale that measures sustainable industrial waste management in small, rapidly industrialising states (SIWM-SRIS), considering the perspective of industrial waste management stakeholder groups. Small states encounter unique vulnerabilities in managing industrial waste due to their small land size, warranting a novel measurement scale for insight gathering instrumental to policy making and sustainable waste planning. The SIWM-SRIS scale development and validation process is conducted in six main stages. Stages one and two constitute a review of scales in related fields and a systematic literature review (SLR) to verify the known research gap and inform the theoretical direction for the new scale development. Stage three constitutes expert interviews to explore key sustainability motives of waste management stakeholders. The fourth stage is a pilot survey (n = 60) to rank important sustainability indicators. The fifth is a formal survey study (n = 391) to validate the measurement scale. Finally, a case study of a plastic factory in the Emirate of Ajman is conducted for scale validation. For stages four to six, the government waste regulatory arm of Ajman Municipality, businesses in the plastic waste-generating industry, and private industrial waste management businesses in the Emirate are involved. SIWM-SRIS scale exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and reliability and validity tests reveal three dimensions: environmental (7 items), economic (5 items), and social (3 items). SIWM-SRIS is capable of measuring sustainability motives among industrial waste management stakeholders in small, rapidly industrialising states. The findings are validated through triangulation, construct validity, discriminant validity and other reliability benchmarks, including Cronbach’s Alpha and Composite reliability. The SIWM-SRIS scale is an innovative tool that uniquely addresses the distinct challenges of sustainable industrial waste management in small, rapidly industrialising states, filling a critical gap in existing research. It provides firm grounds for industrial waste management evaluation, performance benchmarking, and policy planning in small, rapidly industrialising states. • Validating sustainable industrial waste management in small states. • Defining sustainable waste management: environmental, economic, and social dimensions. • Stakeholders' perspectives in sustainable waste management scale validation. • Developing and validating the scale through literature, interviews, and surveys.