Amid increasing urbanisation, environmental degradation, and resource constraints, effective waste management is essential for advancing sustainable development and transitioning toward a circular economy across OECD countries. Recognising this imperative, the study investigates the interrelationships among environmental policies, innovations, urbanisation, and waste management within the circular economy framework. Using the Three-Stage Least Squares (3SLS) technique, the results show that increasing environmental policy stringency improves waste treatment but increases waste exports from OECD countries to other nations. Environmental innovations enhance waste treatment and reduce waste disposal. Increasing urbanisation complicates waste management, reduces waste treatment, and increases disposal. These findings highlight the need to integrate rigorous environmental policies with technological innovation to promote more sustainable and equitable waste management practices across OECD countries, anchored in circular economy principles that prioritise resource recovery and closed-loop material flows. • Innovations cut disposal, drive circular waste practices. • Stringent environmental policies boost waste treatment but raise exports. • Urbanisation strains waste systems, lowering treatment rates. • OECD waste trends reveal policy–innovation synergy.
Alvi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.