Waste disposal is an issue that is becoming increasingly important in policy terms in the European Union, and in Italy, case study of this article. This paper analyses the process of delinking for landfilling trends with the inclusion of economic, and geographical elements, also focusing on spatial issues. Evidence shows that the observed decoupling between economic growth and landfilling is driven by a mix of structural factors, as population density and other waste management tools: local opportunity costs and landfill externalities matter in shaping waste policies and local commitment to landfill diversion. But not only structural factors are relevant. If on the one hand landfill taxation is not arising as a significant driver of the phenomenon, waste management instruments, such as separate collection, and the associated tariff-based evolution of services cost financing, are associated to significant negative effect on landfilled waste.
Regarding the analysis of spatial interrelations, we note that the presence of incinerators in nearby provinces increase landfill diversion in a given area, due to free riding behaviour or intra provinces 'agreements' on waste management, while this is not true for landfill sites, that cause for a given province a string lock in effect.