Do institutional factors matter for improved solid waste management?

There is non-changing behavior of residents in cooperating and contributing for improved solid waste management in spite of increasing provision of solid waste management services in many urban areas. This paper starts from a hypothesis that institutional factors (interventions) are missing. We considered the case of issuing laws and creating awareness about the health and economic burdens due to improper waste management. We applied a paired-t test to test our hypothesis. We find that institutional factors, creating awareness and introducing rules, significantly increase household’s willingness to pay for improved solid waste management services. We find also increasing awareness is more influential than issuing laws. The findings do have important policy implications in reducing not only solid waste management problems but also many other environmental problems in developing countries.