How much does it cost to collect recyclable and residual waste in medium-income countries? A case study in the Chilean waste sector

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics.

Variables	Unit of measurement	Mean	Standard Deviation	Minimum	Maximum
Total costs	CLP/year	1,173,068	2,051,970	98	14,765,504
Recycled Glass	Tons/year	89.18	302	0.0001	2759
Other recycled waste	Tons/year	3043	45,003	0.0001	775,267
Residual waste	Tons/year	29,255	61,907	129.00	778,893
Population density	Inhabitants/km^2	1002.20	2961	0.11	18,386

Table 2. Estimates of the input distance function.

Variables	Coeff.	St.Error	T-stat	p-value
Constant	−7.689	0.571	−13.457	0.000
Recycled glass	−0.085	0.043	−1.951	0.051
Other recycled waste	−0.111	0.030	−3.687	0.000
Residual waste	0.932	0.123	7.566	0.000
Glass^2	−0.037	0.009	−3.913	0.000
Other recycled waste^2	−0.012	0.006	−1.924	0.054
Residual waste^2	0.123	0.015	8.107	0.000
Glass*other recycled waste	0.001	0.001	0.607	0.544
Glass*residual waste	0.011	0.010	1.126	0.260
Other recycled waste*residual waste	−0.019	0.009	−2.152	0.031
Population density	−0.352	0.022	−15.671	0.000
θ	1.682	0.238	7.078	0.000
${\sigma }_v^2$	0.638	0.053	12.028	0.000
Log-likelihood	−374.18
Obs	298

Table 3. Summary statistics of efficiency estimation and shadow price of residual waste for Chilean municipalities analyzed.

	Unit of measurement	Average	Std. Dev.	Minimum	Maximum
Technical effciency	%	59.2	17.1	2.9	86.3
Shadow price of residual waste	US $/kilogram	81.10	49.88	0.81	292.75

Figure 1. Histogram showing the distribution of technical efficiency scores for the Chilean municipalities evaluated.

Figure 2. Histogram with distribution of estimated shadow prices of residual waste (US $/kilogram) for the Chilean municipalities.

Table 4. Technical efficiency and shadow price of residual waste based on population density.

Population density (inhabitants/km^2)	Number of municipalities	Technical efficiency	Shadow price of residual waste (US $/kilogram)
<10	73	0.598	70.21
10–25	73	0.573	72.55
25–100	86	0.564	86.24
>100	66	0.667	89.32

Table 5. Efficiency and shadow price of reducing residual waste by Chilean region.

Region	Location	Number of municipalities	Technical efficiency	Shadow price of residual waste (US $/kilogram)	Population density (inh/km^2)
Araucanía	South	31	0.618	79.16	35
Bío-Bío	South	23	0.623	107.25	190
Los Lagos	South	28	0.613	79.09	21
Los Ríos	South	12	0.584	88.63	19
Magallanes y Antártica Chilena	South	4	0.399	61.22	2
Ñuble	South	21	0.659	65.91	32
Antofagasta	North	7	0.311	83.70	4
Arica y Parinacota	North	2	0.411	33.89	22
Atacama	North	7	0.438	52.24	4
Tarapacá	North	5	0.385	99.34	54
Coquimbo	Central	12	0.472	65.92	28
Libertador General Bernardo O’ Higgins	Central	30	0.640	70.91	81
Maule	Central	29	0.577	70.38	53
Metropolitana de Santiago	Central	49	0.621	93.47	5672
Valparaíso	Central	38	0.633	88.09	238