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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/pay-as-you-throw-helps-cities-cut-waste-save-money/>
"In the northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia, Adam Bushell has saved about $10
a month in waste collection fees since his local council swapped flat fees for
a “pay-as-you-throw” system four years ago. While recycling is collected free
of charge, microchipped bins for general waste are weighed, and households
receive a monthly statement listing how much they threw out and what they owe.
The new approach has changed the way Bushell thinks about household waste, not
least when it comes to food.
“The pay-by-weight concept has made me very conscious of the amount of food
that we waste and has really made me want to dispose of less,” says Bushell,
who runs an electrical services company. “The personal financial cost
definitely makes you think in a different way on what you discard. It makes it
immediately, physically cost-effective to waste less.”
The system works thanks to several factors, first and foremost the clear
financial incentive and rules, says Graham Matthews, head of content at U.K.
commercial waste management company Business Waste. “Residents know and
understand that the less trash they produce, the less they will pay. The system
adheres to the principle of ‘polluter pays,’ meaning those who produce
pollution should bear the costs of managing it.”
Over the last 30 years, pay-as-you-throw waste systems have been gaining
traction across the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, France, Italy and
Norway, as well as Taiwan, Japan, Canada and the U.S. In the U.S., where over
7,000 towns and cities have implemented such programs, they have been praised
as one of the most effective tools for encouraging residents to throw out less
— in some cases, reducing the amount of household trash by 30 percent, as Lily
Baum Pollans, associate professor of urban policy and planning at The City
University of New York, has observed.
Meanwhile, Professor Baum Pollans’ research on municipal food scrap programming
in mid-sized cities across the U.S. has found that pay-as-you-throw is the
biggest predictor of whether or not a city would have a curbside composting
program. In short, linking cost saving to waste reduction works when it comes
to encouraging individual households to be more environmentally responsible,
and municipalities to be more innovative."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
