Effect of environmental regulation on sustainable household waste management in Nigeria

Nigeria's 2009 environmental regulatory policy began to restrict illegal household trash disposal, introducing trash bins in many, but far from all, areas. This paper uses national household-level data to estimate the immediate effects of the national policy and geographically heterogeneous facility improvement. The largest increase in the share of households opting for sustainable disposal occurred in "emerging areas" that historically lacked trash bins but began to introduce them under the new policy. In areas without facility improvement but were otherwise comparable to emerging areas, the policy alone failed to enhance the share of households choosing the use of contained dumpsites.