Waste reduction and recycling promotion stagnation: The determinants of municipal solid waste generation and recycling rates in Japan

Abstract Most developed countries have introduced unit-based pricing for waste disposal and/or separate collection systems for recyclables to reduce waste generation and promote recycling. Nevertheless, the average amount of municipal solid waste per capita has increased, and the average recycling rate has been nearly constant in many countries over the last 30 years. Although many studies have examined the effects of unit-based pricing and/or waste separation on the waste generation and recycling, they have provided limited evidence on the factors influencing stagnation of waste reduction and recycling promotion. This study assumes that the factors underlying the stagnation of waste reduction and recycling promotion include both time-series variation and time-invariant municipal-specific components, therefore it employs a hybrid panel data analysis to capture them separately. The study indicates that both cross-municipality differences and within-municipality temporal changes in several variables are important determinants of waste generation and recycling rates. The findings suggest that the adoption of unit-based pricing is associated with lower waste generation, whereas its association with recycling rates appears to be limited. Additionally, the findings indicate that larger number of separation categories is associated with both waste reduction and recycling promotion.