Effects of socioeconomic and structural variables on the performance of urban solid waste management in Brazilian municipalities

Achieving efficiency in urban solid waste management (USWM) has been a major challenge worldwide. Factors such as scarcity of resources, disregard for impacts, and the trivialization of the waste sector have made progress in USWM unfeasible, mainly in developing countries. This article aims to analyze the effect of socioeconomic and structural explanatory variables on the efficiency of USWM in 940 Brazilian municipalities by means of a two-stage analysis. In the first stage, the technical efficiency scores were estimated using data envelopment analysis; in the second stage, the Tobit regression model was applied to analyze the effect of the explanatory variables on the efficiency scores. The results of the first stage showed efficiency in only 13.72% of municipalities. The results of the second stage did not show significant statistical differences between the types of management, taking as a reference the type of management known as direct public administration. There was no difference in efficiency between municipalities that had an integrated USWM plan and those that did not. Municipalities that had selective collection initiatives were 3% more efficient than those that did not. Municipalities that charged the generator for the urban solid waste collection service were 5% less efficient than municipalities that did not charge for the service provided. There was a positive correlation between municipal human development index and efficiency of USWM. However, no significant effect was observed for municipal gross domestic product per capita in relation to efficiency indices of USWM.