Assessment of municipal waste in a circular economy: Do European Union countries share an identical performance?

• Autor(a) principal: Teixeira, Natércia Maria Mendes
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/12696
• topic: Consciência Ambiental; Data Envelopment Analysis; Desempenho da Economia Circular; Fractional Regression Models; Resíduos Municipais; União Europeia; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia

The current consumption patterns are leading to the overexploitation of natural resources. When combined with poor waste management strategies, results in uncontrollable amounts of waste. Municipal waste stands out by being an unavoidable output of our daily lives with a dispersed nature, making its management harder. As a central key in the circularisation process, its assessment and insights into its roots causes are required. However, the literature lacks knowledge on monitoring the circular economy. The lack of a universally accepted set of indicators to measure the progress towards circularisation makes it a highly complex process. This paper fills in the gap, by performing a systematic analysis and comparison of the municipal waste performance of the European Union countries towards circularisation. Consequently, it provides further insights into the root causes. Firstly, it involves the employment of the Data Envelopment Analysis. The variables based on the monitoring framework from the European Commission paired with the representation of the consumption of materials, the political concern with waste management, and the economic status of the countries were the inputs and outputs used. Secondly, by using the Fractional Regression Models, we aim to study the determinants’ scores, focusing on maintaining a balance between economic, social, and environmental components. Our sample is formed by 24 European Union countries from 2011 to 2019. Results showed a non-homogeneity in countries’ performances towards circularisation, highlighting a gap among Northern and Southern European Union members. Fractional Regression Models' findings revealed that policies should concentrate on: (i) the improvement of environmental awareness through education; (ii) areas with lower population density; (iii) the transition towards the consumption of energy from renewable energy; and (iv) the fight of the unemployment rate and level of poverty.