The Political Economy of Urban Waste Recycling

Urban solid waste in developing countries poses governance challenges: global volumes will reach 3.8 billion tonnes by 2050 (UNEP, 2024), yet cities such as Lahore still struggle with recycling. State agencies focus on collection over recycling due to political incentives, while informal recyclers, who depend on recyclables for their livelihoods, face corruption, limited access, and lack recognition.

This project tests whether assigning property rights over recyclable materials can improve recycling and waste removal efficiency, environmental and health outcomes, and citizen
satisfaction, voting aspirations, and trust in the state. Partnering with the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), we will conduct a randomized controlled trial across Lahore’s union councils. In one treatment (T1), exclusive recycling rights will be granted to private agents; in another (T2), to teams of public sanitation workers. A third (T3) cross-randomizes with T1, allocating a fraction of auction proceeds to performance-based payments for front-line officials based on citizen and private agent satisfaction. The control group maintains the current system of diffuse ownership.

Recyclable waste in Lahore functions as a contested commons. Clarifying ownership turns it into a governed resource, enabling analysis of efficiency and distributional outcomes and offering lessons for cities across the Global South confronting climate-linked waste crises.