Analyzing the Service Quality Dimensions in Household Waste Management: A Comparison of Public and Private Service Providers in Urban Kerala, India

Abstract

Environmental quality, considered as a public good which is non-rival and non-excludable in consumption and under the absence of price signal government interventions are necessary. But they can also lead to policy failure or market distortion, highlighting the need for techniques to evaluate non-market goods like environmental quality. In this regard, this paper addresses possible options in dealing with the issues of solid waste management under systems of private and public service providers. Thus, the study investigates alternative approaches to solid waste management in Kerala, focusing on the service quality dimensions of public and private service providers in waste management. Data for the study are collected from 384 urban households of Kozhikode corporation, Kerala. Mathematical models like discriminant analysis and principal component analysis are used to identify the service quality dimensions like collection charge, attitude of the collector, regularity, efficiency, and feasibility in collection by service providers. The result shows that public service providers are found to be relatively successful in ensuring regularity but failed in ensuring feasibility in the collection. Results from the analysis of service quality offer strong analytical possibilities. The results go in line with the theory that market failure in ensuring environmental quality necessitates government intervention. However, government failure persists in ensuring feasibility in the collection, which paves the way for the intervention of private service provider. This shows that market failure and the government failure have paved the way for a collaborative effort between the private and public service providers in waste management to promote environmental sustainability.