Abstract
As part of their pursuit to succeed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), European Union (EU) countries have placed great importance on realizing SDG 11, which aims to create sustainable cities and communities. The relationship between environmental quality and municipal solid waste remains understudied despite its significant impact on achieving SDG-11. Consequently, this study seeks to peruse municipal solid waste, renewable energy consumption, human capital, and natural resources impact on load capacity as a comprehensive measure of environmental quality. By utilizing the CS-ARDL approach, this study reveals the inadequacy of municipal solid waste conversion in EU countries and highlights the favorable effect of human capital and renewable energy on enhancing environmental quality. Moreover, this study provides concrete evidence that natural resources contribute to environmental corruption. EU economies should adopt policies to bolster municipal solid waste conversion to improve environmental quality.
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Abbreviations
- BC:
-
Biocapacity
- CE:
-
Carbon dioxide emissions
- CSD:
-
Cross-sectional dependence
- EF:
-
Ecological footprint
- EI:
-
Environmental indicators
- EP:
-
Environmental pollution
- EQ:
-
Environmental quality
- EU:
-
European Union
- GDP:
-
Gross domestic product
- GHG:
-
Greenhouse gas
- HC:
-
Human capital
- LCF:
-
Load capacity factor
- MSW:
-
Municipal solid waste
- Non-REN:
-
Non-renewable energy
- NR:
-
Natural resources
- PWT:
-
Penn World Table
- RD:
-
Research and development
- RECYC:
-
Recycling
- REN:
-
Renewable energy
- SDGs:
-
Sustainable Development Goals
- TR:
-
Trade openness
- UN:
-
United Union
- URB:
-
Urbanization
- WB:
-
World Bank
- WDI:
-
World Development Indicator
- WTE:
-
Waste to energy
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This study was carried out within the scope of the project numbered SAD-2022–10997 at Atatürk University, Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit.
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Abdullah Emre Caglar: supervision, conceptualization, software, writing — review and editing, writing original draft. Nazlı Gökçe: writing original draft, writing — review and editing. Faruk Şahin: writing original draft, data curation, visualization.
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Caglar, A.E., Gökçe, N. & Şahin, F. Sustaining environment through municipal solid waste: evidence from European Union economies. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 6040–6053 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31494-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31494-5