Waste management performance in Italian provinces: Efficiency and spatial effects of local governments and citizen action

•Aim: waste management capability of administrators and citizens in Italian provinces.•DEA for efficiency scores and Local Moran statistics into a Markov transition matrix.•Positive spatial correlation for efficiency scores is found.•Results: 2 “good” clusters in the north-east and south, 1 bad in the centre.•Long run: joint action of the actors reduces the gap between good and bad provinces.