The municipal waste management sector in Europe: shifting boundaries between public service and the market

The aim of this paper is to make a comparative assessment of the industry organization in a selected number of European countries and understand the regulatory implications of the shifting of boundaries between market and public service domain. Using an institutional economic approach, focused on transaction along the value chain and on related governance mechanism, we will argue that: a) there is evidence of an increasing shift towards operator-based integrated systems; b) competitive tendering operates at best when these phases are kept separate; c) this requires a strong and efficient planning. More general remarks will be done about the actual presence of a European management model. Those results poses new challenges for economic regulation.