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When landfilled, waste has negative environmental impacts. The revised Waste Framework Directive (updated in 2018 as part of the circular economy package) sets a recycling target of 65% by 2035. While many areas in Europe are below this target, there are many municipalities that boast separate collection rates as high as 80-85%. In these municipalities, the governance model used played a key role in their success. Key to this are innovative incentive schemes such as pay-as-you-throw (PAYT), which is based on the polluter-pays principle.
PAYT is, thus far, one of the most effective ways to increase recycling. But only a handful of municipalities in southern Europe are using this scheme. The result is that more than 90% of users (citizens and companies) pay a waste fee that does not reflect their actual waste generation. This hampers better waste separation and recycling.
Why is this happening? There is a lack of clear guidance and internal resources to implement the scheme and to manage the huge amount of data related to it, economic uncertainties, lack of knowledge about the best technologies to support the shift to PAYT, and uncertainty about waste producers response.
The REthinkWASTE project, which received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union (amount of EU contribution € 1,520,588; total cost of the project € 2,764,715), will be carried on in 2019-2022 with the main objective to endow public authorities with a “plug and play” model based on the PAYT and know-as-you-throw (KAYT).
The goal is to increase the separate collection of waste, reduce residual waste per capita and boost the recovery rate, whilst simultaneously cutting the average household waste bill. Ambitious, isn’t it? We have a plan for it though. By rethinking waste management plans and other management/normative drivers (e.g., regulations, financial plans, and service contracts), we believe that this is achievable.
The projects specific objectives are to:
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Collection of experiences about pay as you throw (PAYT) and know as you throw (KAYT).
Behind LIFE REthink WASTE there are a dozen of resource management partners, who together form the project consortium. We come from different countries and represent different aspects of resource management. What brings us together is a desire to see municipalities around Europe and beyond improve their waste management. Learn more about each of the partners here beside: