The Waste War: on the electoral costs of local sustainability policies

ABSTRACT

Sometimes, environmentally successful policies fail, not because of personal attitudes or technical feasibility, but because of the electoral dispute. Using fixed effects, Difference-in-Difference estimators and opinion polls, this paper scrutinises the electoral cost of introducing a door-to-door (D-t-D) waste collection system in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa (Spain). D-t-D aimed to raise sorting rates in order to make the construction of an incinerator redundant. Separate collection improved significantly, but estimates show that the main opposition party increased its vote share by 12% points in the following municipal elections as a result of the policy. Seeking the reasons for the opposition’s success, opinion polls reveal that D-t-D was surrounded by controversy and lack of information that even led citizens to perceive it as environmentally less efficient. In this context, citizens were unwilling to accept the change in habits that the new waste collection system entailed if they saw their efforts diluted in the electoral dispute. The article concludes that not only the environmental performance, but also the perceived effectiveness of the policy, a climate of social trust and the provision of participation mechanisms are determinants for the electoral success of green policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental policymaking
• electoralism
• local political economy
• municipal waste management
• door-to-door waste collection

Aknowledgements

Xabier Gainza would like to thank the support from the research group on Human Security, Local Human Development and International Cooperation of the Basque University System (IT1434-22). We are also grateful to Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa for the data provided. Finally, we express our gratitude to Professor Amuitz Garmendia, the participants in the DARE Seminar, and three anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of the manuscript. The responsibility for the arguments rests solely with the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 But see Clulow (2019), Jänicke (1997) and Schulze (2021) for the features of national political systems and the adoption of environmental policy.

2 The models differ in the way they treat the residual fraction. In the one that prioritises energy recovery, the residual flow is incinerated and the ashes go to landfill. In the system that prioritises material recovery, the residual flow is transported to a mechanical biological pre-treatment (MBP) facility. They also differ in the importance placed on separate collection. Since incineration plants perform better when flows are bigger, authorities do not have much incentive to broaden selective collection that would reduce the residual flow and jeopardise their viability. On the other hand, systems that prioritise material recycling try to extend separate collection because only separated waste can be satisfactorily recycled (Bueno et al., 2015, p. 452).

3 Four municipalities combined both, D-t-D and ordinary container-based collection.

4 Indeed, some municipalities with a higher percentage of votes for EH Bildu did not result in absolute majorities for the left-wing coalition and vice versa, in some municipalities with a lower percentage, the nationalist left obtained an absolute majority.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Basque University System's Research Group on Human Security, Local Human Development and International Cooperation [grant number IT1434-22] and Basque University System's Research Group Prosoparlam: Biography and Parliament [grant number IT1441-22].

Notes on contributors

Xabier Gainza

Xabier Gainza is an Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Economics of the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). His research interests include regional development, local political economy, and the role of electoral factors on planning.

Andoni Montes-Nebreda

Andoni Montes-Nebreda is Lecturer at the Department of Public Policy and Economic History of the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), and Associate Researcher at Ituna Center (UPV/EHU) and Complutense Institute of International Studies (UCM). His research interests include fiscal federalism, tax policy, and ecological transition.