Pro-Environmental Determinants of Waste Separation: Does the Interaction of Human and Social Capital Matter? Evidence from Italian Provinces

Abstract

Sustainable practices should include proper incentives and involve a large part of the population to achieve a significant environmental impact. Human capital is considered one of the factors that affect pro-environmental behaviours: more educated people tend to be more aware of waste management processes. Another factor is social capital, as far as the feeling of belonging to a society might involve people in adopting sustainable practices. However, these two concepts are strictly related and deserve to be studied as complementary to each other. Thus, this article investigates whether social capital might support waste recycling when interacting with the accumulation of human capital at a provincial level. Our analysis relies on a unique dataset of 103 Italian provinces for the period 2004–2017. Results suggest that while human and social capital has a negative effect on waste separation, their interaction turns out to be positive and even stronger when we consider Southern provinces with respect to the whole country. This finding might be of interest not only from an academic viewpoint, but also from a policymaker’s perspective to alleviate the pledge of waste separation, which has affected the South of Italy in recent decades.

Sustainable Waste Management Practices in Indonesia

“…There is a need for a more comprehensive approach to waste management that takes into account social capital, community empowerment, and social entrepreneurship in current studies. This study seeks to address this gap by thoroughly investigating how these three elements interact and impact waste management techniques (Kasjono et al, 2023;Odoardi et al, 2023;Sunarti et al, 2023). This research discovered that social capital, which includes elements like community initiative, education, communication, and skill development, is significant in waste bank (WB) administration (Ramesh, 2016).…”

“…The strong connection between social capital and waste management practices highlights the significant role of social networks, trust, and shared standards in promoting a culture of responsible waste management. Studies have indicated that social capital, encompassing elements like human capital and social connections, can impact pro-environmental actions and waste management procedures (Odoardi et al, 2023). Social capital allows community members to share information and work together, which helps decrease harmful emissions from businesses (Ataullah et al, 2023).…”

“…Moreover, social capital offers chances for social learning and enhances reputational impacts (Kasjono et al, 2023). Community involvement, supported by social entrepreneurship projects, is seen as a powerful strategy for addressing environmental problems, such as garbage management (Odoardi et al, 2023). Social entrepreneurs, with their understanding of local needs and entrepreneurial drive, have transformed waste management methods with creative solutions (Banerjee & Anand, 2021).…”

Towards Greener Futures: Investigating the Nexus of Social, Human, and Institutional Capital in Sustainable Waste Management

“…Our control variables are the per capita Gross Domestic Product (gdppro) [50] as a measure of local economic well-being, and the population density per square kilometer (dens), as an increase in population also leads to an increase in waste concentration, hindering its differentiation [51] (Table 1).…”