Waste, Resources, and Regulation: Assessing Environmental Sustainability in the European Union

Waste generated by economic activities has reached serious levels and threatens ecological sustainability. These activities not only prevent the economic use of natural resources but also leave behind waste that is difficult to manage for the environment. Policymakers are seeking to meet some of their energy demand in a clean way while reducing the pressure on the ecology through waste management. The effectiveness of waste management may vary depending on environmental policy stringency. However, globalization affects society by changing consumption patterns and policymakers with different application examples. These factors, which drive one another, have the potential to seriously affect ecological sustainability. In this study, the impact of waste management expenditures, natural resource depletion, globalization, and environmental policy stringency on load capacity factor in selected European Union (EU) countries is investigated from 1995 to 2020. The results of the study reveal that while natural resource depletion, waste management expenditures, and globalization negatively affect environmental sustainability in France, environmental policy stringency affects it positively. Waste management expenditures in Spain and environmental policy stringency in Ireland increase environmental sustainability. To improve environmental quality in EU countries, it is recommended that environmental policies and standards be further harmonized between countries and that cooperation be increased to achieve common environmental goals.