EFFECTS OF PAY AS YOU THROW IN A MUNICIPALITY WITH A HIGH SEPARATE COLLECTION BASELINE: SEVESO, WASTE4THINK PROJECT

The Horizon2020 WASTE4think project, funded by the European Union, is aiming to test innovative ecosolutions to improve waste management in 4 pilot cities. In Seveso (Italy), Pay As You Throw (PAYT) has been introduced after a long term sensitization phase, lasting many years that lead the city to have a very high baseline (separate collection rate: 75%). PAYT allowed to achieve even higher results, but the key outcome is that without social actions performed to sensitize people on this issue, accompanying the change of habits, the acceptance of PAYT may be low. This instrument is being promoted by the EU as an effective incentive tool, but its implementation implies an in-depth analysis of its effects including acceptance by citizens and consistency with the other tools implemented in each municipality. The dataset used for the publication can be accessed at https://zenodo.org/record/3906096#.XvMib-dS-w