Investigating policy options to reduce plastic waste in agriculture: A pilot study in the south of Italy

The 2018 European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy identifies a set of actions to reduce plastic waste in the EU in the near future. To implement this strategic view appropriate policy tools need to be identified within Member Countries. The present work attempts to understand farmers’ attitudes to traditional policy tools (i.e. subsidies and tax-credits) as well as new initiatives such as pay-back mechanisms under an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme to abate plastic waste in the agricultural sector. To achieve the above aim we consider a pilot case for the province of Foggia an area which is recognised as the largest plain of southern Italy. We consider a survey returned from 1,783 farmers and a multinomial regression model to infer on the probability to adopt the above policy tools. Key results suggest that the above policy options would be affected by the type of plastic waste generated. In particular, plastic packaging and plastic films would affect the probability to opt for a subsidy. In contrast, other types of plastic waste (e.g. anti-bird, wind-breaking, etc.) and plastic waste from exhausted oil and filters bins would favour the adoption of a tax-credit mechanism; and horticultural productions and the proximity to a collection point for waste disposal would increase the probability for farmers to see more favourable an EPR policy to contribute to plastic waste reduction.