delinking and EKC in Europe

This chapter provides a methodological perspective and econometric estimates of delinking, for waste indicators in Europe. EKC are addressed as a natural extension of delinking analysis. They confirm the hypothesis that even European countries, characterized by high income levels and a relatively long waste policy history, are at best experiencing only relative delinking, with waste indicators increasing slightly less than economic drivers. The elasticity of two major non-hazardous waste flows (packaging and municipal) considered, with respect to consumption, at the European level, is not significantly different from unity. In other words, we are a long way from seeing a reversion in the waste-consumption relationship. It should be noted that a panel data analysis focusing on a homogenous set of countries has fewer flaws and is more informative for policy, compared to international cross section/panel analysis. The relative homogeneity characterising the European framework combined with the European framing of most waste policies, adds to the information content of the investigations, even though for our sample we provide only mean estimates (income elasticity is assumed to be the same for all countries at a given income level)