Simon De Jaeger

Wasteful waste-reducing policies? The impact of waste reduction policy instruments on collection and processing costs of municipal solid waste.

We study the impact of some local policies aimed at municipal solid waste (MSW) reduction on the cost efficiency of MSW collection and disposal. We explicitly account for differences between municipalities in background conditions by using a bootstrapped version of the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology in combination with a matching technique. Using data on 299 municipalities in Flanders, Belgium, for the year 2003, our results indicate that municipalities that are member of a waste collection joint venture, or that subscribe to a voluntary agreement to reduce MSW at the highest ambition level, collect and process MSW more efficiently than other municipalities. Weekly instead of two-weekly waste collection, or using a weight-based pricing system appears to have no impact on efficiency. Our results show that aiming at MSW reduction does not lead to lower efficiency of public service provision, even on the contrary.

Waste pricing policies and cost efficiency in municipal waste services: the case of Flanders

Major changes in municipal solid waste (MSW)-related services, such as the collection system, often require important initial investments, while the benefits on the output side typically occur over a longer time perspective. However, when analyzing the association between such policy choices and cost efficiency of MSW collection and disposal, the time horizon is often not taken into account. This article advocates the use of the Malmquist Productivity Index approach to measure and analyze cost efficiency changes over time after the introduction of the relative new weight-based waste collection and billing system in Flanders. The results and robustness checks indicate that introducing weight-based pricing does not lead to lower cost efficiency of MSW service provision.

Residual household waste: from pay-per-bag to pay-per-kilogram. An evaluation study for Flanders:

To be in line with the polluter-pays principle, an increasing number of Flemish municipalities have introduced a weight-based pricing system for residual household waste. Municipalities using this new pricing scheme are keen to ascribe decreasing waste production to the introduction of the new system. In order to evaluate the real impact of the weight-based pricing, an extension to the standard difference-in-differences evaluation techniques is proposed. The main idea is to use historical observations on waste production to determine which version of the difference-in-differences technique is most suitable to assess the impact of a policy action on waste quantities. The method is easy to apply, which makes it a very useful tool for both scientists and policy makers. Surprisingly, empirical results for Flanders indicate that, on average, municipalities using the weight-based system do not perform better than other municipalities.To be in line with the polluter-pays principle, an increasing number of Flemish municipalities have introduced a weight-based pricing system for residual household waste. Municipalities using this new pricing scheme are keen to ascribe decreasing waste production to the introduction of the new system. In order to evaluate the real impact of the weight-based pricing, an extension to the standard difference-in-differences evaluation techniques is proposed. The main idea is to use historical observations on waste production to determine which version of the difference-in-differences technique is most suitable to assess the impact of a policy action on waste quantities. The method is easy to apply, which makes it a very useful tool for both scientists and policy makers. Surprisingly, empirical results for Flanders indicate that, on average, municipalities using the weight-based system do not perform better than other municipalities.

A model enhancement approach for optimizing the integrated shift scheduling and vehicle routing problem in waste collection

Abstract This paper presents a model enhancement approach for the integrated problem of developing shift schedules and waste collection routes. Given a variable amount of waste to be collected the objective is to find fixed, minimal cost shift schedules and collection routes under a service level constraint. While regular shifts during traffic peak hours are cheaper in terms of labour costs, the collection speed is on average lower than during expensive, non-regular shifts. Our findings can be summarized as follows. (1) Solutions can be found within reasonable computation time for real-life instances. (2) The model enhancement approach accurately estimates the required collection times and therefore consistently finds a feasible solution. (3) The solutions not only result in considerable savings, but are also proven to be (near)optimal by comparison with a practical lower bound based on flexible routes.

Hedonic Valuation of Odor Nuisance Using Field Measurements: A Case Study of an Animal Waste Processing Facility in Flanders

In this paper we estimate the external cost caused by odor from an animal waste processing facility in Flanders, using new odor measures based on field measurements. We compare four ways of incorporating odor nuisance: distance to the source, distance zones, continuous odor measures, and odor zones. The odor zones approach seems best suited to estimate the external costs. We test these specifications for some 1,400 observations of house sales transaction between 2004 and 2008. Results show that houses subject to moderate and severe odor nuisance sell at a discount of 5% and 12%, respectively, compared to houses without nuisance. (JEL Q24, R52)

From pay-per-bag to pay-per-kg:The case of Flanders revisited

Weight-based pricing systems for municipal solid waste collection and processing are increasingly popular in many European countries and regions. However, the impact on waste generation of such pricing schedules remains debated and depends strongly on the practical details of the system used. This article assesses the impact of a voluntary transition by Flemish municipalities from the default price-per-bag pricing systems to a more sophisticated weight-based pricing schedule. By (1) exploiting alternative statistical techniques, (2) using more recent data and (3) focusing on the introduction effect of the new pricing schedule, we are able to complement and refine prior research on this topic. Our results indicate that introducing weight-based pricing has initially a significant and substantial downward impact on the amount of residual municipal solid waste per capita. This result is robust under different methodologies that control for selection bias. There are however, indications that this initial effect does not persist in the years after introduction.

Comparing the impact of road noise on property prices in two separated markets

In this paper, we empirically test the stability of valuation estimates of road traffic noise based on house prices. A hedonic valuation model is constructed and estimated for two separate housing markets in Belgium. We estimate noise depreciation sensitivity index (NDSIs) for different modelling choices for both markets separately, jointly and taking into account spatial dependency. The results confirm that housing markets are region-specific and several housing characteristics are valued differently across regions. The effect of road noise, however, appears to be rather robust. Thus, the use of NDSI estimates from one region to value traffic noise in another region seems to be acceptable.