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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 25 April 2022

Pekka Valkama, Harald Torsteinsen and Pekka Kettunen

The study examines how introducing joint municipal arm's length bodies (ALBs) into municipal waste management has influenced the preconditions of democratic governance.

Abstract

Purpose

The study examines how introducing joint municipal arm's length bodies (ALBs) into municipal waste management has influenced the preconditions of democratic governance.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors describe and explain the democratic implications of joint municipal agencification by reviewing the perspectives of representative and participative democracy. Through this approach, the authors apply the exit–voice framework developed by Albert Hirschman to highlight the potential roles and rights of citizens. This research includes country case studies of Finland and Norway. The authors analyse and systematize Finnish and Norwegian waste and organizational policies by reviewing national regulatory documents, commentaries and guidance materials to identify the fundamental missions and institutional traditions of the alternative organizational forms of joint ALBs.

Findings

The study findings highlight that joint agencification has an adverse effect on the democratic governance of waste management policy and services even though these are public monopoly services. They also demonstrate that all joint municipal ALBs limit the classic elements of representative democracy in general, and that private-law ALBs limit residents' rights to influence and participate.

Originality/value

This study contributes to local public management studies by applying Hirschman's theory to comparative reviews of joint agencification and ALBs. It revealed the similarities and differences between the different organizational forms of joint ALBs applied in Finland and Norway. It also demonstrated how the democratic rights of residents depend on how municipalities collaborate.

Details

International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 35 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3558

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 September 2016

Mattias Haraldsson

The aim of this paper is to explore the causes of variations in financial accounting and disclosure practices in a municipal setting highly influenced by governance reforms – the…

1651

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to explore the causes of variations in financial accounting and disclosure practices in a municipal setting highly influenced by governance reforms – the Swedish municipal waste management sector. This focus is motivated by the claim that recent governance reforms have made the organization of public services delivery more diversified and fragmented, which may have had a negative effect on transparency and accountability.

Design/methodology/approach

To document the accounting and disclosure practices of the Swedish solid waste management organizations, a questionnaire approach was selected. The study uses a conceptual theoretical framework that complements the basic variables considered to influence public sector financial accounting and disclosure practices with factors such as competition and municipal governance forms.

Findings

The results show that compliance accounting and disclosure transparency to some extent have different antecedents and that the external environment, including market competition, size and economic input, influences both. The governance forms, on the other hand, only influenced compliance accounting (negatively and positively) and not the willingness to disclose information in general. The overall conclusion is that changes to the economic and institutional context mixed with different municipal governance forms introduces a multiplicity of forces that makes the accounting practices themselves diversified and fragmented and not necessarily only in a “negative” direction.

Practical implications

From a policy perspective the results indicate that the changing institutional and organizational environment has not been matched by attention to, and regulation of, reporting structures that secure external vertical accountability processes. The general implication for future regulations should therefore be to recognize the influence of different economic and institutional forces and develop accountability models that enable and preserve the benefits of governance reform initiatives without losing accountability and transparency.

Originality/value

Few prior quantitative studies have theoretically related municipal accounting and disclosure practices to factors such as market competition and popular municipal governance forms (municipal corporation, regional cooperation, outsourcing, etc.). Knowledge of how reforms might influence municipal accounting practices might benefit future policy decisions on accountability models with aim of enable and preserve the benefits of governance reform initiatives without losing accountability and transparency.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 April 2015

Kate Parizeau and Josh Lepawsky

– This paper aims to investigate by what means and to what ends waste, its materiality and its symbolic meanings are legally regulated in built environments.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate by what means and to what ends waste, its materiality and its symbolic meanings are legally regulated in built environments.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors investigate the entanglement of law and the built environment through an analysis of waste-related legal case studies in the Canadian context. They investigate a notable Supreme Court case and three examples of Canadian cities’ by-laws and municipal regulations (particularly regarding informal recycling practices). They mobilize what Valverde calls the work of jurisdiction in their analysis.

Findings

The authors argue that the regulation of waste and wasting behaviours is meant to discipline relationships between citizens and governments in the built environment (e.g. mitigating nuisance, facilitating service provision and public health, making individuals more visible and legible in the eyes of the law and controlling and capturing material flows). They find that jurisdiction is used as a flexible and malleable legal medium in the interactions between law and the built environment. Thus, the material treatment of waste may invoke notions of constraint, freedom, citizenship, governance and cognate concepts and practices as they are performed in and through built environments. Waste storage containers appear to operate as black holes in that they evacuate property rights from the spaces that waste regularly occupies.

Originality/value

There is scant scholarly attention paid to legal orderings of waste in built environments. This analysis reveals the particular ways that legal interventions serve to construct notions of the public good and the public sphere through orderings of waste (an inherently indeterminate object).

Details

International Journal of Law in the Built Environment, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-1450

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 March 2023

Huijie Li and Deqing Tan

The purpose of this paper is to study how the government stimulates incineration plants to participate in waste classification management, and how to adjust the subsidy strategy…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study how the government stimulates incineration plants to participate in waste classification management, and how to adjust the subsidy strategy for them.

Design/methodology/approach

Considering that the classification behavior of residents will produce herd effect, and waste classification can reduce the disposal cost of incineration plants, the authors constructed a differential game model between the government and waste incineration plants, and analyzed the input strategy of the government and incineration plants when they cooperate in the management of municipal waste classification.

Findings

Increasing the input level of supervision or raising subsidy price, the government can promote incineration plants to increase the input level of incentive. Moreover, from a long-term perspective, increasing the input level of supervision is more effective. Compared with government supervision, the method of incineration plants incentive can more effectively increase the amount of waste disposal. Furthermore, the government supervision and the incineration plants incentive have a positive interaction effect on improving the amount of waste disposal. Increasing the input level of incineration plants incentive or the level of waste-to-energy technology can increase the amount of waste disposal, and from a long-term perspective, increasing the level of R&D investment is more beneficial to increasing the amount of waste disposal.

Originality/value

The results are helpful to improve the investment in the management of waste classification, and also provide a certain theoretical basis for the government's subsidy policy for incineration plants, so as to reduce the financial pressure of the government.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 August 2018

Aman Luthra

Rapid economic growth and urbanization in India have increased demand for municipal services. In response, privatization has emerged as a policy solution to a growing deficit in…

Abstract

Purpose

Rapid economic growth and urbanization in India have increased demand for municipal services. In response, privatization has emerged as a policy solution to a growing deficit in urban infrastructure and service provision. But, privatization assumes prior state ownership of those services. Certain waste management services, specifically doorstep waste collection, have never been truly public in the sense that private informal actors have historically provided them. The purpose of this paper is to examine the tensions and contradictions between two related policy imperatives – universal service provision and privatization – that appear to be guiding the municipalization of solid waste collection services in urban India.

Design/methodology/approach

Research for this paper relies on detailed analysis of key government documents (reports of various committees, regulations and laws) that have been important in defining municipal responsibilities for waste management in India from 1990 to 2016. In addition, where appropriate, research materials from the author’s doctoral dissertation fieldwork in Delhi from October 2012 to December 2013 have also been used.

Findings

An analysis of key policy documents revealed that the government’s efforts to document deficits in service provision ignored, and thus rendered invisible, the work of the informal sector. While a consensus on the need for universal waste collection service had emerged as early as the late 1990s, it was not until 2016 that municipal responsibility for service provision was codified into law. The rules issued in 2016 municipalized this responsibility while simultaneously opening up spaces for the inclusion of the informal sector in waste collection service provision.

Originality/value

This paper fills a gap in the existing literature on how policy interventions have brought the space of the doorstep into the ambit of the state such that it allows for the opening up of those spaces for the entry of private capital. Under the guise of universal service provision, the shift to municipalization and outsourcing to private corporations is not in fact privatization – service provision is already private – but involves the dispossession of informal workers and the transfer of their resource to the formal, corporate sector.

Details

Society and Business Review, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5680

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2021

Jaber Valizadeh and Peyman Mozafari

Production of waste has been increased exponentially due to world industrialization and urban and machine life expansion. On the other hand, the outbreak of the COVID-19…

Abstract

Purpose

Production of waste has been increased exponentially due to world industrialization and urban and machine life expansion. On the other hand, the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus quickly became a global crisis. This crisis has added a large amount of waste to urban waste. The purpose of this study is to create cooperation between municipal waste collector contractors.

Design/methodology/approach

Thus, a mathematical model is proposed under uncertain conditions, which includes the volume of municipal waste and infectious waste including personal protective equipment and used equipment for patients. To reduce total costs, the results are evaluated with four cooperative game theory methods such as Shapley value, t value, core center and least core. Ultimately, the saved cost by cooperation in each coalition is allocated fairly among the contractors. Finally, a comparison was made between the solution methods based on the value of the objective function and the solution time.

Findings

The results indicate that the proposed cooperative method increases cost savings and reduces the fine of residual waste. Therefore, it can be mentioned that this kind of cooperation would finally result in more incentives for contractors to form larger coalitions. Genetic algorithms were used to solve the large-scale model.

Originality/value

The proposed model boosts the current understanding of waste management in the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper adds additional value by unveiling some key future research directions. This guidance may demonstrate possible existing and unexplored gaps so that researchers can direct future research to develop new processes.

Book part
Publication date: 5 June 2023

Shima Yazdani and Esmail Lakzian

Currently, waste is regarded as a symptom of inefficiency. The generation of waste is a human activity, not a natural one. Currently, landfilling and incinerating wastes are…

Abstract

Currently, waste is regarded as a symptom of inefficiency. The generation of waste is a human activity, not a natural one. Currently, landfilling and incinerating wastes are common waste management techniques; but the use of these methods, in addition to wasting raw materials, causes damage to the environment, water, soil, and air. In the new concept of “Zero Waste” (ZW), waste is considered a valuable resource. A vital component of the methodology includes creating and managing items and procedures that limit the waste volume and toxicity and preserve and recover all resources rather than burning or burying them. With ZW, the end of one product becomes the beginning of another, unlike a linear system where waste is generated from product consumption. A scientific treatment technique, resource recovery, and reverse logistics may enable the waste from one product to become raw material for another, regardless of whether it is municipal, industrial, agricultural, biomedical, construction, or demolition. This chapter discusses the concept of zero landfills and zero waste and related initiatives and ideas; it also looks at potential obstacles to put the ZW concept into reality. Several methods are presented to investigate and evaluate efficient resource utilization for maximum recycling efficiency, economic improvement through resource minimization, and mandatory refuse collection. One of the most practical and used approaches is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, which is based on green engineering and the cradle-to-cradle principle; the LCA technique is used in most current research, allowing for a complete investigation of possible environmental repercussions. This approach considers the entire life cycle of a product, including the origin of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, usage, and final disposal, or recycling. Using a life cycle perspective, all stakeholders (product designers, service providers, political and legislative agencies, and consumers) may make environmentally sound and long-term decisions.

Details

Pragmatic Engineering and Lifestyle
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-997-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2007

Hina Zia and V. Devadas

The purpose of this research is to assess the existing state of MSW in Kanpur city with the aim of identifying the main obstacles to its efficiency and the prospects for…

4315

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to assess the existing state of MSW in Kanpur city with the aim of identifying the main obstacles to its efficiency and the prospects for improvisation of the solid waste management system in the city.

Design/methodology/approach

The research has been conducted in three stages. The first stage involved collection of background information through various reports, publications of various organizations to understand the state of MSWM in the city, followed by interviews with various heads of the Municipal Corporation involved in SWM, municipal workers and residents of the city. Field studies were conducted in few wards of the city and official dump sites. The third stage involved conducting interviews with planning experts and representatives from NGOs to derive information on various SWM related problems and prospects for improvising the system.

Findings

The existing solid waste management system in the city appears to be highly inefficient. Only primary and secondary collection, transportation and open dumping are practiced, that too in a non‐technical manner.

Research limitations/implications

There is a need to establish a detailed database regarding the quantity and quality of the waste generated by various generators category wise. There is a need to find the exact size of the informal waste recycling sector and the economics of waste recycling in the city to integrate it with the formal sector.

Originality/value

This paper systematically assesses the obstacles in the existing solid waste management system in Kanpur city and tries to assess the potentials for its improvisation.

Details

Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7835

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 5 June 2023

Ariva Sugandi Permana, Sholihin As’ad and Chantamon Potipituk

The zero-waste term in municipal solid waste management has been the utopian objective of every waste management authority in the cities in developing countries, even though it…

Abstract

The zero-waste term in municipal solid waste management has been the utopian objective of every waste management authority in the cities in developing countries, even though it comes with different perceptions, which are sometimes misguided. People can produce no waste unless they live with no consumption. The zero-waste term does not mean that we produce no waste, rather we dump no waste at the landfill site. It means we dispose of nothing at a landfill site since the issue of landfill site can be a culprit of waste management, for its reiterating city land demands that generate “headaches” to city authority because of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard issue). No one accepts living voluntarily next to a landfill site as it creates more harm than harmless. With zero waste at the landfill site in mind, the waste management authority attempts to deal with the complexity of municipal solid waste management, by reviving each element of the waste management stakeholders to concertedly move on to deal with waste. Individual households and communities, without which waste management will not be successful, were positioned as the main thrust of waste management. A multipronged approach was implemented with all stakeholders, i.e., lawmakers, regulators, waste producers, implementers, and pressure groups, appearing with different functions but a common point: zero waste at the landfill site. A stakeholder with a large capacity, i.e., local government focuses on creating a large project that has a large impact on overall waste management; private sectors may contribute to establishing recycling centers, and waste-to-energy projects. Meanwhile, the individual households, which are large in number but have a small capacity, establish community-based activities, i.e., waste banks. This chapter attempts to provide the overall picture of municipal solid waste management in 14 cities in developing countries toward their goal of zero waste at landfill sites.

Book part
Publication date: 6 September 2023

Talita Panzo and José Carlos Góis

The success of waste management depends on public awareness of environmental issues and the ability of the local government to provide facilities. Many countries have serious…

Abstract

The success of waste management depends on public awareness of environmental issues and the ability of the local government to provide facilities. Many countries have serious problems of financial resources and infrastructure for waste management. As there is a lack of awareness of the population on the importance of waste management, municipal governments only adopt remediation actions to manage waste collection service.

In Angola, during the last decade, the government has been committed to the reconstruction and development of the country, creating infrastructure for the provision of essential services and publishing legal tools to respond to environmental issues. In 2012 the government approved the Strategic Plan for the Management of Municipal Solid Waste (PESGRU). The strategic plan was designed for a time horizon until 2025. Due to the economic crisis that hit the country, the implementation of the plan suffered several setbacks and the deadlines established for the different programmes are being compromised.

A study carried out in 2020 on waste management in Angola, with four of the main provinces as a stage, through the analysis of official documents, direct observation and face-to-face interviews with those in charge of waste management, revealed a lack of funding for the implementation of PESGRU and low assistance from the Ministry of the Environment and the central government and showed the unsustainability of the waste management model in light of the principles recommended by international good practices.

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