Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

How Far is Campania from the Best-Performing Region in Italy? A Territorial-Divide Analysis of Separate Waste Collection

  • Published:
Social Indicators Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the divides in separate waste collection (SWC) between Campania and Veneto from a twofold perspective that considers both intensity (the size of the gap) and inequality (the differences among the SWC distributions across municipalities). In the framework of Kapp’s social cost theory, the Recentered Influence Function regression allows an evaluation of the amount of territorial divides that are accounted for by the: (i) regional component, which captures the extent to which regional authorities transpose national legislation into programs of waste management; (ii) municipal component, which explains the effect of the operational strategies adopted by each local authority to guarantee an adequate performance. As the best-performing region in Italy, Veneto reached an average SWC level far superior to that of Campania in 2012, and more importantly, most of its municipalities exceeded the 65% target set by Legislative Decree 152/2006 with a smaller variability within the region. However, a more detailed analysis shows that the policies and strategies for waste management set by the regional authority in Campania should be more effective at the initial stage, but are partly held back by the successive implementation steps controlled by each municipality. One of the primary deterrents of reaching a better performance in waste management in Campania lies in the weakness of its institutions, which makes the region more vulnerable with a large amount of heterogeneity in waste management performance across municipalities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Source: our calculations based on ISPRA data

Fig. 2

Source: our calculations based on ISPRA data

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. A negative externality occurs when the production or consumption activities of a subject negatively affect the well-being of another person without the latter receiving compensation (in the case of negative impact) equal to the cost borne. For a review of the literature on environmental externalities, refer to the van den Bergh’s paper (2010).

  2. The way to reduce waste production is not taxation because taxation only responds to the market logic and does not solve the problem (Distaso 2012). The cost of waste disposal in northern Italy is much higher than that sustained in the southern regions, resulting in a shift of waste from north to south, which, in part, is generating the waste emergency in Campania. In contrast, the “polluter pays principle”, which is associated with the concept of extended producer responsibility, allows treating waste as a social cost. For a definition of extended producer responsibility see http://www.oecd.org/env/tools-evaluation/extendedproducerresponsibility.htm.

  3. D’Alisa et al. (2010) argued that Campania’s waste problem cannot be analysed as one of simple waste mismanagement. They spoke of a “crisis of democracy” in the waste management process that has generated conflicts between citizens and government.

  4. D’Alisa et al. (2012) suggested using as complementary indicators the density of waste generated (DWG), the density of separate collection (DSC) and the density of waste disposed or the amount of waste not separately collected (DWD). The relationship among these variables is as follows: \( \frac{WG}{{KM^{2} }} = \frac{SC}{{KM^{2} }} + \frac{WD}{{KM^{2} }} \), where WG, SC, WD, and \( KM^{2} \) are the waste generated, separate collection, waste disposed and square kilometres, respectively. These variables offer a measure of the demographic pressure that the observed phenomenon exerts on the territory.

  5. http://demo.istat.it/ (accessed June 2017).

  6. http://demo.istat.it/ (accessed June 2017).

  7. Following the literature on the factors that drive separate waste collection, we analyse the SWC rate as the ratio of tons of separate waste collection to total tons of urban waste collected (see Agovino et al. 2016, 2017; Mazzanti et al. 2008, 2009, 2012; Mazzanti and Zoboli 2013).

  8. The municipalities for which official data were unavailable are not considered in the current analysis.

  9. The municipalities of Veneto form homogeneous clusters with highly differentiated collection rates generating spatial clusters that can be explained by spatial diffusion processes (Agovino et al. 2016; Crociata et al. 2016). In contrast, the municipalities of Campania show a patchy distribution of SWC that does not generate spatial clusters.

References

  • Agovino, M., Crociata, A., & Sacco, P. L. (2016a). Location matters for pro-environmental behaviour: A spatial Markov Chains approach to proximity effects in differentiated waste collection. Annals of Regional Science, 56(1), 295–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agovino, M., Ferrara, M., & Garofalo, A. (2016b). An Exploratory Analysis on Waste Management in Italy: A Focus on Waste Disposal in Landfill. Land Use Policy, 57, 669–681.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agovino, M., Garofalo, A., & Mariani, A. (2016c). Effects of environmental regulation on separate waste collection dynamics: Empirical evidence from Italy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 124(1), 30–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agovino, M., Garofalo, A., & Mariani, A. (2017). Separate waste collection in Italy: the role of socio-cultural factors and targets set by law. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 19(2), 589–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Armiero, M. (2014). Garbage under the Volcano: The waste crisis in Campania and the struggles for environmental justice. In M. Armiero & L. Sedrez (Eds.), A history of environmentalism. Local struggles, global histories. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Pl.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armiero, M., & D’Alisa, G. (2012). Rights of resistance: the garbage struggles for environmental justice in Campania, Italy. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 23(4), 52–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Armiero, M., & Fava, A. (2016). Of humanities, sheep, and dioxin: a history of contamination and transformation in Acerra, Italy. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 27(2), 67–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bello, H., & Szymanski, S. (1996). Compulsory competitive tendering for public services in the UK: The case of refuse collection. Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 23(5–6), 881–903.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berglund, C., & Söderholm, P. (2003). An econometric analysis of global waste paper recovery and utilization. Environmental & Resource Economics, 26(3), 429–456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blinder, A. S. (1973). Wage discrimination: Reduced form and structural estimates. Journal of Human resources, 8(4), 436–455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruvoll, A., & Nyborg, K. (2004). The cold shiver of not giving enough: on the social cost of recycling campaigns. Land Economics, 80(4), 539–549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bucciol, A., Montinari, N., & Piovesan, M. (2015). Do not trash the incentive! Monetary incentives and waste sorting. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 117(4), 1204–1229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bucciol, A., Montinari, N., Piovesan, M., & Valmasoni, L. (2011). Measuring the impact of economic incentives in waste sorting. In A. D’Amato, M. Mazzanti, & A. Montini (Eds.), Waste Management in Spatial Envirnoments. Abingdon: Routledge Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caggiano, M., & De Rosa, S. P. (2015). Social economy as antidote to criminal economy. How social cooperation is reclaiming commons in the context of Campania’s environmental conflicts. Partecipazione e Conflitto, The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies, 8(2), 530–554.

    Google Scholar 

  • Callan, S. J., & Thomas, J. M. (1997). The impact of state and local policies on the recycling effort. Eastern Economic Journal, 23(4), 411–423.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cantoni, R. (2016). The waste crisis in Campania, south Italy: A historical perspective on an epidemiological controversy. Endeavour, 40(2), 102–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castellano, R., Musella, G., & Punzo, G. (2017). Structure of the labour market and wage inequality: Evidence from European countries. Quality & Quantity, 51(5), 2191–2218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castellano, R., Musella, G., & Punzo, G. (2018). Exploring changes in the employment structure and wage inequality in Western Europe using the unconditional quantile regression. Empirica. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10663-017-9397-z.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang, D. S., Liu, W., & Yeh, L. T. (2013). Incorporating the learning effect into data envelopment analysis to measure MSW recycling performance. European Journal of Operational Research, 229(2), 496–504.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Comba, P., Bianchi, F., Fazzo, L., Martina, L., Menegozzo, M., Minichilli, F., et al. (2006). Cancer mortality in an area of Campania (Italy) characterized by multiple toxic dumping sites. Annals of the New York Academic of Sciences, 1076, 449–461.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corraliza, J. A., & Berenguer, J. (2000). Environmental values, beliefs, and actions: A situational approach. Environment and behavior, 32(6), 832–848.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crociata, A., Agovino, M., & Sacco, P. L. (2016). Neighborhood effects and pro-environmental behavior: The case of Italian separate waste collection. Journal of Cleaner Production, 135, 80–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Alisa, G., & Armiero, M. (2013). What happened to the trash? Political miracles and real statistics in an emergency regime. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 24(4), 29–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Alisa, G., Burgalassi, D., Healy, H., & Walter, M. (2010). Conflict in Campania: Waste emergency on crisis of democracy. Ecological Economics, 70, 239–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Alisa, G., Di Nola, M. F., & Giampietro, M. (2012). A multi-scale analysis of urban waste metabolism: Density of waste disposed in Campania. Journal of Cleaner Production, 35, 59–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Alisa, G., & Kallis, G. (2016). A political ecology of maladaptation: insights from a Gramscian theory of the State. Global Environmental Change, 38, 230–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Amato, A., Mazzanti, M., & Nicolli, F. (2015). Waste and organized crime in regional enviroments. How Waste tariffs and mafia affect waste management and disposal. Resource and Energy Economics, 41, 185–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Biase, M. (2009). Lo Stato attacca. Pianura risponde. Scenari, strategie, tattiche ed azioni della rivolta anti-discarica nella periferia occidentale napoletana, In: Petrillo A. (edizione) Biopolitica di un rifiuto. Le rivolte antidiscarica a Napoli e in Campania, Ombre Corte editore, Verona.

  • de Miranda Ribeiro, F., & Kruglianskas, I. (2015). Principles of environmental regulatory quality: A synthesis from literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 96, 58–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Di Vita, G. (1997). Macroeconomic effects of the recycling of waste derived from imported nonrenewable raw materials. Resource Policy, 23(4), 179–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Distaso, A. (2012). For an integrated and sustainable management of solid urban waste: an approach based on theory of social costs. International Journal of Sustainable Development, 15(3), 220–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Domberger, S., Meadowcroft, S. A., & Thompson, D. J. (1986). Competitive tendering and efficiency: The case of refuse collection. Fiscal studies, 7(4), 69–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Expósito, A., & Velasco, F. (2018). Municipal solid-waste recycling market and the European 2020 Horizon Strategy: A regional efficiency analysis in Spain. Journal of Cleaner Production, 172, 938–948.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fazzo, L., Belli, S., Minichilli, F., Mitis, F., Santoro, M., Martina, L., et al. (2008). Cluster analysis of mortality and malformations in the provinces of Naples and Caserta (Campania regions). Annali dell’Istituto Superiore di sanità, 44(1), 99–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiorillo, D. (2013). Household waste recycling: National Survey Evidence from Italy. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 56(8), 1125–1151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Firpo, S., Fortin, N., Lemieux, T. (2007). Decomposing wage distributions using recentered influence function regressions. University of British Columbia (June).

  • Firpo, S., Fortin, N. M., & Lemieux, T. (2009). Unconditional quantile regressions. Econometrica, 77(3), 953–973.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fortin, N., Lemieux, T., & Firpo, S. (2011). Decomposition methods in economics. Handbook of labor economics, 4, 1–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garofalo, A., Castellano, R., Punzo, G., & Musella, G. (2017). Skills and labour incomes: How unequal is Italy as part of the Southern European countries? Quality & Quantity. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-017-0531-6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guerrini, A., Carvalho, P., Romano, G., & Cunha Marques, R. (2017). Assessing efficiency drivers in municipal solid waste collection services through a non-parametric method. Journal of Cleaner Production, 147(20), 431–441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hage, O., & Söderholm, P. (2008). An econometric analysis of regional differences in household waste collection: the case of plastic packaging waste in Sweden. Waste Management, 28(10), 1720–1731.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hampel, F. R. (1974). The influence curve and its role in robust estimation. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 69, 383–393.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heckley, G., Gerdtham, U. G., & Kjellsson, G. (2016). A general method for decomposing the causes of socioeconomic inequality in health. Journal of Health Economics, 48, 89–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hornik, J., Cherian, J., Madansky, M., & Narayana, C. (1995). Determinants of recycling behavior: A synthesis of research results. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 24(1), 105–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapp, K. W. (1950). The social costs of private enterprise. New York: Schocken Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kapp, K. W. (1969). On the nature and significance of social costs. Kyklos, 2, 334–347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapp, K. W. (1970). Environmental disruption and social costs: A challenge to economics. Kyklos, 4, 833–848.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapp, K. W. (1974). The implementation of environmental policies. Environmental Policies and Development Planning in Contemporary China and Other Essays. Paris: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kapp, K. W. (1977). Environment and technology: New frontiers for the social and natural sciences. Journal of Economic Issues, 11(3), 527–540.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A., & Mastruzzi, M. (2011). The worldwide governance indicators: Methodology and analytical issues. Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 3(2), 220–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kinnaman, T. C. (2006). Policy watch examining the justification for residential recycling. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20, 219–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kinnaman, T. C. (2010). Optimal solid waste tax policy centralized recycling. National Tax Journal, 63(2), 237–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Legambiente. (2012). Ecosistema Urbano. XIX Rapporto sulla qualità ambientale dei comuni capoluogo di provincia. http://www.legambiente.it/contenuti/dossier/ecosistema-urbano.

  • Lucchini, F., & Membretti, A. (2016). The land of fires. Evaluating a state law to restore the narrative power of local communities. Partecipazione e conflitto, 9(2), 640–665.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinez-Alier, J., Temper, L., Del Bene, D., & Scheidel, A. (2016). Is there a global environmental justice movement? The Journal of Peasant Studies, 43(3), 731–755.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martuzzi, M., Mitis, F., Bianchi, F., Minichilli, F., Comba, P., & Fazzo, L. (2009). Cancer mortality and congenital anomalies in a region of Italy with intense environmental pressure due to waste. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 66, 725–732.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazzanti, M., Montini, A., & Nicolli, F. (2009). The dynamics of landfill diversion: Economic Drivers, policy factors and spatial issue: Evidence from Italy using provincial panel data. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 54, 53–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazzanti, M., Montini, A., & Nicolli, F. (2012). Waste dynamics in economic and policy transitions: Decoupling, convergence and spatial effects. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 55(5), 563–581.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazzanti, M., Montini, A., & Zoboli, R. (2008). Municipal waste generation and socio economic drivers. Evidence from comparing Northern and Southern Italy. Journal of Environmental Development, 17, 51–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazzanti, M., & Zoboli, R. (2008). Waste generation, waste disposal and policy effectiveness: Evidence on decoupling from the European Union. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 52, 1221–1234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazzanti, M., & Zoboli, R. (2013). Resource taxation and regional planning: Revenue recycling for local sustainability in the aggregates sector. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 56(6), 893–916.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Membretti, A. (2016). Terra dei Fuochi: valutare l’impatto sulla salute della Legge 6/2014. Assunti di base, metodologia e procedure di una ricerca-azione territoriale. Cartografie Sociali, 1, Mimesis Edizioni.

  • New York Times. (2007). In Mire of Politics and the Mafia, Garbage Reigns. May 31, 2007.

  • Nifo, A., & Vecchione, G. (2014). Do institutions play a role in skilled migration? The Case of Italy, Regional Studies, 48(10), 1628–1649.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oaxaca, R. (1973). Male–female wage differentials in urban labor markets. International Economic Review, 14(3), 693–709.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogge, N., & De Jaeger, S. (2012). Evaluating the efficiency of municipalities in collecting and processing municipal solid waste: A shared input DEA-model. Waste Management, 32(10), 1968–1978.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarra, A., Mazzocchitti, M., & Rapposelli, A. (2017). Evaluating joint environmental and cost performance in municipal waste management systems through data envelopment analysis: Scale effects and policy implications. Ecological Indicators, 73, 756–771.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schultz, P. W., Oskamp, S., & Mainieri, T. (1995). Who recycles and when? A review of personal and situational factors. Journal of environmental psychology, 15(2), 105–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simões, P., Carvalho, P., & Marques, R. C. (2012). Performance assessment of refuse collection services using robust efficiency measures. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 67, 56–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., & Guagnano, G. A. (1995). The new ecological paradigm in social-psychological context. Environment and behavior, 27(6), 723–743.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The Economist. (2009). Special report on waste, February 26th 2009.

  • Triassi, M., Alfano, R., Illario, M., Nardone, A., Caporale, O., & Montuori, P. (2015). Environmental pollution from illegal waste disposal and health effects: a review on the “Triangle of Death”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12, 1216–1236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van den Bergh, J. C. (2010). Externality or sustainability economics? Ecological Economics, 69(11), 2047–2052.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vining, J., & Ebreo, A. (1990). What makes a recycler? A comparison of recyclers and nonrecyclers. Environment and behavior, 22(1), 55–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yeomans, J. S. (2007). Solid waste planning under uncertainty using evolutionary simulation–optimization. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 41, 38–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economic and Legal Studies, University of Naples “Parthenope”, Via Generale Parisi 13, 80132, Naples, Italy

    Antonio Garofalo, Massimiliano Agovino, Gennaro Punzo & Gaetano Musella

  2. Department of Management and Quantitative Studies, University of Naples “Parthenope”, Via Generale Parisi 13, 80132, Naples, Italy

    Rosalia Castellano

Authors
  1. Antonio Garofalo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rosalia Castellano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Massimiliano Agovino
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Gennaro Punzo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Gaetano Musella
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gaetano Musella.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 5 and 6.

Table 5 RIF-regression coefficients (Mean and Gini index) on log-SWC rate. Campania and Veneto, 2012
Full size table
Table 6 List of variables
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Garofalo, A., Castellano, R., Agovino, M. et al. How Far is Campania from the Best-Performing Region in Italy? A Territorial-Divide Analysis of Separate Waste Collection. Soc Indic Res 142, 667–688 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-1936-x

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-1936-x

Keywords

JEL Classification

Search

Navigation