An Empirical Investigation of Waste Management and Ecological Footprints in OECD Countries

One of the most important issues addressed by the United Nations to realize sustainable development is environmental pollution. Even though factors involved in environmental degradation have been extensively studied and discussed in the literature, it lacks incorporation of the impact of waste management on environmental degradation. This study aims to fill the mentioned gaps by investigating the impact of waste management on environmental degradation. We use municipal waste per capita, the rate of municipal waste sent to landfills, recycling rate, per capita income, renewable energy consumption, trade openness, and ecological footprint per capita from 1995 to 2018 in OECD countries data. Fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation tests are employed to test this relationship. According to the findings, a long-term relationship has been found. The long-term coefficient shows that the amount of municipal waste per capita increases the ecological footprint per capita. On the other hand, the amount of municipal waste sent to landfills, recycling rate, and renewable energy consumption reduce the ecological footprint per capita. Additionally, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is valid for OECD countries. Good waste management has been playing an important role in reducing environmental degradation and these results can be very important guidance for policymakers. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.