Merger activity in the waste disposal industry: the impact and the implications of the Environmental Protection Act

Over the last two and a half decades, the UK's waste disposal industry has evolved from a disparate collection of localized small-scale operators to a coherent multimillion pound industry. With particular reference to the 1990 Environmental Protection Act, this paper uses multinomial logit analysis to estimate the degree to which increased regulation of the industry has led to a rise in merger activity within the sector. It is shown that the Act did increase the probability of a waste disposal firm being associated with merger activity, either as an acquiring firm or as a target for other firms. As a result, intra-industry consolidation took place alongside attempts by non-waste disposal firms to diversify their interests within a buoyant sector which was avoiding the recessionary downturn affecting other sectors of the British economy.