Relationship between Recycling Rate and Air Pollution in the State of Massachusetts

Giovanis, Eleftherios (2014): Relationship between Recycling Rate and Air Pollution in the State of Massachusetts.

Abstract

Recycling can be an effective tool for reducing waste generation, eliminating waste disposal sent in landfills and incinerators and reducing environmental pollution. Moreover, recycling is one way to achieve sustainable use of natural resources and to protect the environment and human health. However, the relationship between air pollution and recycling has been neglected in the previous economic studies. This study examines this relationship using panel data from a waste municipality survey in the state of Massachusetts during the period 2009- 2012. In addition, the analysis considers economic factors, as unemployment rate and income per capita, meteorological variables, as well as, it accounts for additional municipality characteristics, such as population density and trash collection services. The approach followed is a fixed effects model which controls for stable time invariant characteristics of the municipalities, thereby eliminating potentially large sources of bias. The findings support that a negative relationship between recycling rate and particulate particles in the air of 2.5 micrometres or less in size (PM2.5) is present.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Air Pollution, Data, Municipality Survey, Recycling, Solid waste services,Stochastic Frontier Analysis
• Subjects: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q50 - General; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q53 - Air Pollution ; Water Pollution ; Noise ; Hazardous Waste ; Solid Waste ; Recycling

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