Toshiaki Sasao

Analysis of the socioeconomic impact of landfill siting considering regional factors

This study examined the socioeconomic impact of landfill siting using a choice experiment. First, the impact of a landfill was estimated using the data collectively. The results of this analysis showed that residents more negatively evaluate accepting waste from other municipalities when the municipalities are farther away, even if the quantity of waste is the same. Moreover, they showed that the public negatively evaluates siting landfills near sources of drinking water and believes that the deforestation required for landfill siting is undesirable. They also showed that residents are more strongly opposed as the landfill site is closer to their own houses. Second, the impact is estimated when grouping the data considering regional factors. The results indicate that residents in rural areas more strongly oppose accepting waste from other municipalities than do residents in urban areas, and those in the municipalities with their own municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills more strongly oppose accepting it than those in municipalities without them. Moreover, the external costs in each community examined considering three virtual landfill siting plans were estimated using estimated marginal willingness to pay. The results show that the external costs depend on not only the number of households but also on regional factors, especially whether or not the municipality has its own MSW landfill.

Cost and efficiency of disaster waste disposal: A case study of the Great East Japan Earthquake

This paper analyzes the cost and efficiency of waste disposal associated with the Great East Japan Earthquake. The following two analyses were performed: (1) a popular parametric approach, which is an ordinary least squares (OLS) method to estimate the factors that affect the disposal costs; (2) a non-parametric approach, which is a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) to analyze the efficiency of each municipality and clarify the best performance of the disaster waste management. Our results indicate that a higher recycling rate of disaster waste and a larger amount of tsunami sediments decrease the average disposal costs. Our results also indicate that area-wide management increases the average cost. In addition, the efficiency scores were observed to vary widely by municipality, and more temporary incinerators and secondary waste stocks improve the efficiency scores. However, it is likely that the radioactive contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station influenced the results.

Does industrial waste taxation contribute to reduction of landfilled waste? Dynamic panel analysis considering industrial waste category in Japan.

Waste taxes, such as landfill and incineration taxes, have emerged as a popular option in developed countries to promote the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle). However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of waste taxes. In addition, quite a few studies have considered both dynamic relationships among dependent variables and unobserved individual heterogeneity among the jurisdictions. If dependent variables are persistent, omitted variables cause a bias, or common characteristics exist across the jurisdictions that have introduced waste taxes, the standard fixed effects model may lead to biased estimation results and misunderstood causal relationships. In addition, most existing studies have examined waste in terms of total amounts rather than by categories. Even if significant reductions in total waste amounts are not observed, some reduction within each category may, nevertheless, become evident. Therefore, this study analyzes the effects of industrial waste taxation on quantities of waste in landfill in Japan by applying the bias-corrected least-squares dummy variable (LSDVC) estimators; the general method of moments (difference GMM); and the system GMM. In addition, the study investigates effect differences attributable to industrial waste categories and taxation types. This paper shows that industrial waste taxes in Japan have minimal, significant effects on the reduction of final disposal amounts thus far, considering dynamic relationships and waste categories.

HOW DOES MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE POLICY AFFECT HEAT AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCED BY INCINERATORS

This study examines the effects of municipal solid waste (MSW) policy interventions, specifically sorted collections and unit-based pricing of heat and electricity produced by incinerators in Japan, considering technological and demographic factors. The study shows that the technological factors such as incineration capacity and 24 hours operation affect the available heat energy and electricity. In addition, some sorted collections and unit-based pricing have also affected them. Sorted collections of organic waste can increase available heat energy. For plastics containers and packaging, no significant effects have been observed for both heat energy and electricity. In contrast, for sorted collections of paper containers and packaging, negative significant effects have been observed for both heat energy and electricity. This phenomenon indicates that other factors than a decrease in lower calorific values may affect the heat energy and electricity. Operating years has affected electricity negatively though it has affected heat energy positively. These findings indicate that proper make-decision of MSW policy and choice of incineration type depend on whether which option the municipalities focus on either material recycling or energy recovery (either heat energy or electricity).