A comparative state study of reducing land-based municipal solid waste storage: Determinants, policies, and frameworks

This study is a comparative state study of municipal solid waste storage and disposal. It integrates many environmental studies with comparative state policy analysis. Two closely related questions are examined: (1) Why and to what extent do states restrict land-based municipal solid waste disposal? (2) What factors and public policies do determine municipal solid waste landfilling rate? Landfilling rate is calculated percentage of solid waste not composted, incinerated or landfilled.; Thousands of landfills have been closed due to state and federal regulations and substandard conditions of old landfills. This closing has resulted in building larger regional or privatized landfills in the United States and pressures to find new sites or expand existing ones. A political and environmental crisis of solid waste now exists as a result of lack of landfill space.; Based on the statistical analysis of secondary source data from 50 American states (from three major sources: (1) Biocycle, (2) Green Index authored by Hall and Knerr, and (3) various articles and books in political science), the municipal solid waste landfill rate is related to the physical, economic, legislative conditions and capacities of the states, solid waste disposal issues, public opinion, and recycling programs and policies. Six theoretical constructs (6 models) show that the issue severity model plays a crucial role in determining the state landfilling rate. Finally, the last model is an integrated model containing variables from the other models. Results show that state economic and innovative capacities are negatively related to the landfill rate.