Spatial inequality in municipal solid waste disposal across regions in developing countries

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The regional inequalities in socio-economical characteristics such as income, population density, age composition, unemployment rate and the education level may bring about variation in waste generation, recycling and collection. Using environmental Kuznets curve, the factors affecting municipal solid waste disposal are examined. The results demonstrate that an inverted N-shaped curve executes on municipal solid waste disposal for all regions. As personal disposable income increases, per capita municipal solid waste disposed firstly declines, then grows at the second stage and finally decreases again. All the explanatory variables including economic factors, social characteristics and geographical barriers are found to influence municipal solid waste disposal significantly. Each person increase in population density leads to an increase in municipal solid waste disposed by approximately 1.17 ×10 -4 kg/day. Each percent increase in age composition results in a decrease in municipal solid waste disposed by approximately 0.0224 kg/day; in the unemployment rate causes a decrease of 0.0901 kg/day and in the education level results in a decrease of 0.01556 kg/day. In general, municipal solid waste disposal starts to increase at the first turning point of personal disposable income NT$ 198,000 (about US$ 6,280) and to decrease at the second point of NT$ 389,000 (about US$ 12,350) for all regions (pooled data). The rural regions, however, cannot support the inverted Nshaped curve by the 'reduced form' while urban regions have a significant outcome. This result implies that income can only explain a portion of variation while other social and geographical factors contribute a lot to identify the variation in municipal solid waste disposal between urban and rural regions.

Attitudes and behaviors of undergraduate students toward environmental issues

“…Since then, there have been changes in the behaviors and attitudes of people toward environmental issues. However, while a majority of people have adopted environmental attitudes, environmentally responsible behaviors have not been reflected in life in the same level (Tarant and Cordel, 1977;Nouri et al,2008;Chen, 2010;Chen et al,2010). In the 1980s, a different viewpoint was brought up by scientists.…”

“…In addition, Robertson and Burdge (1998) stated that the people living in the urban areas are more concerned with environmental issues than those living in the rural areas. Tehrani et al 2009 and2010;Thapa (1999) observed some changes in the environmental attitudes and behaviors of the students due to their education. He found out that the students who had education on environment were more aware of environmental attitudes than the other students.…”

An examination on the feed-in tariff policy for renewable electricity: Taiwan’s case example

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Geography of Waste as a New Approach in Waste Management Study

“…Thus, in terms of low population served by sanitation services and poor infrastructure, the waste generated and uncollected is disposed in open dumps polluting the local environment. In developing countries, all the explanatory variables including economic factors, social characteristics and geographical barriers are found to influence municipal solid waste disposal significantly (Chen, 2010). Also, new EU members have a low share of access of rural population to sanitation services leading to illegal dumping.…”