Relationships between solid waste management performance and environmental practice adoption in Welsh small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

For small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs), the determination of whether the adoption of environmentally supportive practices relates to good environmental performance has only been scarcely investigated. By using an empirical sample of 299 Welsh SMEs, this paper investigates just this issue. SMEs that have adopted five environmental practices and those that have not are compared as well as their environmental and economic performance using solid waste management activities. The results show that those organizations that have not adopted these practices perform better on environmental performance measures. The explanation, for what seems like a counterintuitive result, may be due to a reactive adoption of these practices to help mitigate poor performance on solid waste management practices. Additional insights and managerial implications are presented since these results will help identify methods to aid SMEs further in the adoption of environmentally supportive practices.