Rami Benabdelkrim

 

University / Organisation : Paris Dauphine University - PSL

Paper or project ? paper

Title : Producer Responsibility Organizations and municipal e-waste collection performance : evidence from France

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Abstract : Traditionally the responsibility of municipalities, the management of e-waste (electrical waste) has been gradually transferred to producers, particularly under the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility. In France, the sector’s organizational architecture is based on Producer Responsibility Organizations (PRO), which are State-approved firms with a public service mission that are responsible for the collection of electrical waste, particularly in partnership with municipalities. To do this, the PROs for the municipalities are geographically distributed by a coordinating organization serving as the contractual link between the two sides. Our research aims at understanding the effect of PROs’ geographical approach on municipal collecting performance. This question is analyzed using a panel econometric model that covers all French departments from 2009 until 2020. The preliminary results suggest that departments with a greater concentration of PROs have lower collection performance. This may therefore put into question the argument of economies of scale for municipalities’ geographical approach to PROs.