Impact of the circular economy on waste management performance: The case of the environmental goods and services sector in South Korea

•In South Korea, legislation for circular economy (CE) was recently enacted, making evaluation and data of CE limited.•This study uses the environmental goods and services (EGSS) data as a proxy for CE.•The adoption effect of EGSS data on waste management performance is examined.•South Korea national level municipal solid waste data from 1986 to 2021 is used eo measure waste management performance.•The adoption of EGSS data positively affected recycling performance but not waste reduction. In South Korea, the Framework Act on Resource Circulation (FARC) was enacted in 2016, making the circular economy (CE) related data limited. This study examines waste management performance in South Korea from the perspective of waste reduction and recycling by using environmental goods and services sector (EGSS) data as a proxy for CE data to assess how adopting EGSS data in policies affects waste management. The current study assumes that the use of EGSS data for environmental policy decisions will result in less waste and increased recycling. To test this assumption, this study conducted a descriptive analysis and segmented linear regression using municipal solid waste (MSW) and EGSS data from 1986 to 2021. The results indicated that the adoption of EGSS data only positively affected the recycled amount and recycling rate of MSW, while its effects on the amount of generated and landfilled MSW was not significant. [Display omitted]