Digitalization-Environment Nexus: Dual Pathways Transforming Waste Management into Sustainable Development in Pakistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31098/issues.v6i2.4572Keywords:
Solid Waste Management, Sustainable Development, Digitalization, Environmental Practices, Circular Economy, Public Utilities, Structural Equation ModelingAbstract
Rapid urbanization in developing countries intensifies solid waste management (SWM) challenges. However, the parallel mechanisms through which SWM contributes to sustainable development remain underexplored, particularly the independent mediating roles of environmental practices and digitalization. This study examines environmental practices and digitalization as individual and parallel mediators of the relationship between SWM and sustainable development in public utilities in a developing economy. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey was conducted among 406 employees from seven Water and Sanitation Companies (WASAs) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Structural Equation Modeling with bootstrapping procedures tested direct and indirect effects. SWM had a positive and significant effect on sustainable development (beta = 0.41, p < 0.001). Environmental practices and digitalization each partially mediated this relationship, with specific indirect effects of 0.13 and 0.12, respectively. The total indirect effect was 0.25, representing the sum of the two specific indirect effects, and was also significant. These findings suggest that environmental practices and digitalization operate as distinct, additive mediating mechanisms rather than as a statistically interacting or synergistic pair. No interaction term or serial mediation path was estimated; therefore, no claim of synergy or amplification is made. This study contributes to the limited research that examines environmental practices and digitalization jointly as parallel mediators within a single structural model in a developing-economy public-utility context. The findings suggest that resource-constrained municipalities may strengthen sustainability outcomes by investing in both mechanisms concurrently rather than treating them as substitutes.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammad Ahsan Iqbal, Asifa Muhammad Sabir , Ayesha Ateeq , Anosha Zameer
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