Evaluating Economic and Environmental Performance Dynamics in Municipal Solid Waste Management Using a StoNED Framework

Assessing changes in the environmental and economic performance of the municipal solid waste (MSW) sector is essential toward sustainable waste management. This study analyzed four key performance indexes within the MSW sector: efficiency, eco‐efficiency, productivity change and eco‐productivity change, using the semi non‐parametric envelopment of data (StoNED) method. This approach overcomes the limitations of both parametric and non‐parametric techniques. The analysis, covering 98 Chilean municipalities from 2015 to 2019, revealed that eco‐efficiency scores were consistently lower than efficiency scores, a pattern consistent with municipalities achieving greater relative performance in cost containment than in recycling outcomes. The efficiency scores surpassed eco‐efficiency scores across all municipalities, with average values of 0.616 and 0.508, respectively. The dynamic assessment confirms this finding, showing an average productivity change of 0.92%, indicating an improvement in the economic performance of municipalities in managing MSW. By contrast, the average eco‐productivity change was −1.40%, involving a decline in the combined economic and environmental performance over years. The decomposition of both productivity and eco‐productivity indices into their drivers illustrates that the positive productivity trend was driven by efficiency gains, while the negative eco‐productivity trend was due to a slowdown in technical change.