The performance of Spanish solid waste collection

In this paper we examine street cleaning and waste collection services in Spanish municipalities with a population exceeding 50 000. The purpose is to identify factors that influence the efficiency of these services. Three input variables (staff, vehicles and containers) and four outputs variables (...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inWaste management & research Vol. 26; no. 4; pp. 327 - 336
Main Author García-Sánchez, I.M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.08.2008
Sage Publications Ltd. (UK)
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Analysis
Collection
Data envelopment analysis
Density
Humans
Mathematical models
Methods
Municipal solid waste
Municipalities
Operations research
Public Sector
Refuse and refuse disposal
Refuse collection
Refuse Disposal - methods
Rendering
Spain
Studies
Variables
Waste disposal
Waste Management
Wastes
Spain
public sector
Waste collection
data envelopment analysis
municipalities
wmr 1219—1
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:In this paper we examine street cleaning and waste collection services in Spanish municipalities with a population exceeding 50 000. The purpose is to identify factors that influence the efficiency of these services. Three input variables (staff, vehicles and containers) and four outputs variables (tonnage, collection points, collection point density and kilometres of surface area washing) are analyzed using an analytical model based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology. These variables, along with non-controllable input variable (Tourist Index), were chosen because they were shown, based on a Tobit regression analysis, to have a statistically significant impact on municipality behaviour. The results obtained show that scale inefficiency was lower than pure technical efficiency, the latter is linked to service management. It was observed that the street-cleaning activity was performed more inefficiently than that of waste collection. Furthermore, it was detected that municipalities can reduce the resources used in rendering this service by 8%. Finally, an estimation using the Mann—Whitney test allows us to conclude that there is no difference between the inefficiencies observed in municipalities managed directly by town councils and those which have been transferred to private companies.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
ISSN:0734-242X
1096-3669
0734-242X
DOI:10.1177/0734242X07081486