Waste management policy and employment: the case of France

• Main Authors: Younes Ben Zaied, Nidhaleddine Ben Cheikh, Pascal Nguyen, Mohamed Badrane Mahjoub
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: LLC "CPC "Business Perspectives" 2018-04-01
• Series: Environmental Economics
• Subjects: employment; jobs creation; long-run causality; VECM; waste tonnage
• Online Access: https://businessperspectives.org/images/pdf/applications/publishing/templates/article/assets/10231/EE_2018_01_Zaied.pdf

This paper examines whether a causal relationship exists between waste tonnage and employment when the waste collection is entrusted to a private operator in France (i.e. waste management policy by delegation of service). The empirical investigation is based on weekly data for four waste streams for the period from January 2015 to June 2017. Using nonstationary time series techniques including cointegration, VECM (Vector Error Correction Model) and long-run causality test of Toda and Yamamoto (1995) within a bivariate framework, the results demonstrate potential causal negative relationship between waste tonnage and employment. For three waste streams (i.e. household waste, outdoor garbage waste and miscellaneous waste), the results suggest that waste management practices that aim at entrusting the collection and treatment to a private operator (i.e. waste management by delegation of service) are not economically beneficial to society, because this policy does not favor environmental jobs creation. The paper calls for the adoption of other waste management practices to preserve employment in the waste collection sector.