Preliminary evaluation of the potential performance of a future PAYT system in Portugal

The use of Pay-As-You-Throw systems is a reality in several cities throughout the globe, in some cases for several year by now. In Portugal, as well as many other countries around the Mediterranean, there have been only a few experiences and limited information exists regarding their performance. In this contribution, the results of a first stage towards an experimental PAYT system recently implemented in the municipality of Cascais are detailed. The strategy involved the increase of collection points for packaging waste and the use of gamification as positive incentive. Following the infrastructure improvements, the segregated waste collection doubled from 10% to 20–21%. With the gamification, the proportion of waste segregation increased to nearly 30%.