Effectiveness of solid waste management policies in Australia: An Exploratory Study

Many countries have attempted to manage the local solid waste via policies as one of the main means to improve the recycling rate. However, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of policies due to complex social environment or high requirements of data collection. The repeated measures analysis of variance method is innovatively employed in this study to analyze the effectiveness of Australia's solid waste policy. This study revealed that repeated measures analysis of variance can effectively assess the effectiveness of policies with different start times. This method has low data requirements and is beneficial for assessing policies with complex conditions. Using Australia as an example, the effectiveness of four waste recycling policies was analyzed in this study. The results showed that regions with combination policies outperform in improving solid waste recycling rates. By contrast, regions without any policy implementation showed a declining trajectory in recycling rates. •Repeated measures analysis of variance was adopted to analyze policy effectiveness.•Australia's waste recycling rate increased, however not statistically significant.•Combination of policies may show better effectiveness due to complementary effects.•Effects of socio-economic factors on recycling rate varied.