Innovation policy: introduction and consolidation of PAYT waste tariffs in Portugal

Pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) waste tariffs are at an early stage of development in Portugal, and policy has a role in shaping this potential innovation management tool towards a national consolidation. To understand the dynamic policy process on PAYT tariffs, this study first gained insight into the current dominant state, insofar as governance mechanisms and public-private municipal solid waste (MSW) sector. Subsequently, it analyzed how the policies promoting PAYT are aligned with four fundamental attributes for policy design under concepts of Innovation Policy. These attributes are: resource-intensiveness, political risk, state and private market interventions, and targeting. For the elected officials (decision-makers), PAYT as an economic instrument represents a long-term investment with political uncertainty. Therefore, policymakers need to develop robust economic regulations to improve transparency and complementary actions for a more integrated MSW sector, which creates a transitional space for change, destroying pre-existing conditions that are not aligned to the future state.