Environmental commitment, sustainable development, and regional efficiency in waste collection activities

Abstract

AbstractWaste management industry is key to achieve environmental commitment, clean production, and Circular business models; as well as to promote sustainable development. The aim of this study is to contribute to the Circular Economy measuring business performance and firm efficiency of waste collection activities and their determinants, with emphasis on sustainable development and environmental challenges. The main research goals of this study are as follows: first, to examine firm efficiency scores in waste collection activity (dangerous and non‐dangerous waste); second, to analyze the main fluctuation patterns of business efficiency; third, to evaluate the differences in the average efficiency according to region; finally, to examine the relationship between efficiency score and environmental challenges (investment in environmental protection and COVID‐19 pandemic impact). The efficiency of firms is estimated using non‐parametric production frontiers in a sample of 5441 observations for the period 2010–2020. We used several non‐parametric tests, such as the Mann–Whitney U test and the Kruskal–Wallis test; as well as several regression models (Tobit and bootstrapping regressions) to test the relationship between efficiency scores and environmental variables. The main findings of this study provide new empirical evidence and go a step further, not only at the firm level, but also at the regional level.