The Determinants of the Municipality's Decision to Implement Recycling in Japan: Socio-Economic and Technological Factors

The Japanese government has encouraged reduction, reuse, and recycling of waste with the slogan "3R" under the Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-based Society. However, the law is non-binding in nature; thus, the collection of each type of recyclable containers and packaging is done at the discretion of the municipalities. Some municipalities do not provide collection services for these recyclables. Why do some municipalities recycle while others do not? Few studies have investigated the determinants of the municipality's decision to collect recyclables. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors affecting a municipality's decision to implement the collection of already sorted recyclable containers and packaging in Japan. We use a panel data at the municipal level, which enabled us to analyze the behavioral characteristics of each municipality more accurately. We investigate the municipality's decision to provide collection service for each type of recyclable containers and packaging, while the other studies looked at recyclables as a whole. Equations for each type of recyclables have been estimated using the random effect probit model. Our results suggest that some socioeconomic and technological factors could keep the municipalities from implementing the collection of sorted recyclables.