The Administrative Mechanism Behind Sustainable Waste Disposal Practices: Evidence From State-Level Specific Authorities in Nigeria

Abstract

Indiscriminate waste disposal practices—such as dumping waste in public spaces and burning waste at home—pose severe environmental threats. Yet, they are prevalent in Africa. In this paper, we study factors affecting household waste disposal in Nigeria using national survey data, focusing on the administrative mechanism, through which specific waste management authorities (rather than general environmental agencies) effectively promote the use of waste bins for sustainable disposal practices. This paper's statistical analysis presents four major conclusions: First, baseline estimates show correlational evidence that state-level specific waste management authorities are positively associated with sustainable waste disposal practices, conditional on household socioeconomic status. Second, this positive association between waste management authorities and sustainable waste disposal is largely absorbed after controlling for regional GDP or GDP per capita. Third, conditional on GDP (or GDP per capita), waste management authorities play a significant role in influencing waste disposal practices only in states with relatively low levels of GDP (or GDP per capita). Fourth, one important function of these specific waste management authorities is to lower the waste collection fee, so that households in some, although not all, states would be more able and willing to dispose of waste sustainably.