International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

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� Charges by weight are a strong incentive to reduce one’s weight of rubbish.
The move from a flat-rate charge to the pay-by-weight charge resulted in a 45%
reduction in waste collected in one sample area;
� Weight reductions varied by socio–economic characteristics of the household;
� Recycling was the key to waste reduction, but at the time it was only glass
recycling facilities that were widely considered to be convenient;
� There are economies of scale of waste generation and waste reduction with
respect to numbers in the household, which are estimated in this study. The
amount of waste per head decreases with increasing numbers in the
household, though at a diminishing rate;
� The overwhelming majority of the population have not experienced others
using their bins. Experience of this tends to be confined to those in rented
accommodation;
� With respect to attitudes to charges, an overwhelming majority say that they
would prefer the new pay-by-weight system to having to pay through other
means, such as through increased income taxes; and
� The majority say that the new pay-by-weight scheme is fair. However, fairness
is not the verdict of over a quarter of respondents.
Summary findings of the 2007/2008 reports include:
� Following the introduction of the PBU systems, a decrease in the amount of
waste presented by households has been reported by local authorities;
� Under the pay by weight system, case study areas reported reductions in the
domestic waste presentation rates 142 of between 28% and 61% from the year
prior to PBU up to the most recent report year of 2007;
� Under the tag a bin system case study, waste presentation by householders for
landfill reduced by 38% from the year prior to PBU up to the most recent report
year of 2007;
� It was concluded from the case studies that pay by weight is more effective for
reducing household waste presentation than tag a bin;
� Stage 1 of the study found that out of the survey responses from 34 local
authority administrative areas, pay by weight was only in use in 15% of the
areas for which responses were received, whereas pre-paid tag systems were
in use in 82% of areas;
� Three administrative areas examined in stage 2 of the study had moved from a
flat rate to pay by weight charge. The average reduction experienced by the
three areas in the presentation of waste for landfill (black bin) was 47%
142 The waste-presentation rate is designated as the weight of waste presented by householders for
delivery to landfill by waste collectors.
29/09/09