Municipal work to change individual waste behaviour

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Municipal work to change individual (waste)
behaviour

• Jan Buysse
• INTERZA
• Belgium

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INTERZA

• Public company
• Full waste management
• 30 000 households
• Suburban region near Brussels

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INTERZA 1990s

• Problems with landfilling
• Regional strategy aiming at separate collection
  recycling
• Door-to-door collection and waste transfer
  stations
• All services free except residual waste

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INTERZA 1990s

• Result
• Very successful in residual waste (111 kg)
• Enormous amounts of recycables (504 kg)

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Costs include collection, treatment and taxes.
Overhead costs, tarification and refunds not
included
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Costs include collection, treatment and taxes.
Overhead costs, tarification and refunds not
included
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INTERZA 1990s

• Neglection of all possibilities of waste
  prevention (garden waste)
• Misuse by companies and inhabitants from
  neighbouring municipalities
• Enormous costs
• Stimulation of recycling became victim of its own
  success

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INTERZA 2004

• New waste strategy
• Citizens appreciate high service level(quality
  management !)
• Expensive services are to be paid for(waste
  economic good)
• Strong promotion of garde waste prevention
• Intensive communication (Why? How?)

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Tarification

• Residual waste 1.5 euro per bag
• Organic waste 25/50 euro per year
• Construction waste 0/5/10 euro
• Garden waste waste 0/5/10 euro
• Non-recycable waste 5/20/40 euro

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Organic waste prevention

• Compost bins and boxes at 5 euro
• Coaching of citizens by compost masters
• Purchase of grass mulchers, wood chippers and
  slow growing turf is subsidized

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Communication

• (- 6 weeks) Direct mail letter

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Communication

• (- 6 weeks) Direct mail letter
• Information on the amounts of waste and the costs
• Information on the current misuse at the expense
  of all tax payers
• Provisional orange sticker on the organic waste
  container(5 months reflection period)
• Free voucher for the waste transfer station (20
  euro)

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Communication

• ( 6 weeks) Newsletter
• Detailed information on all possibilities of
  organic waste prevention
• 10 euro refund for citizens handing in the
  organic waste container

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Communication

• ( 15 weeks) Newsletter
• Reminder of limit date for buying a sticker on
  the organic waste container
• Answer to faqs
• Announcement of home composting demonstrations

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Communication

• Faq-sheets to all local officials and
  stakeholders
• Hearings and open discussions with the public or
  local commitees
• Hot-line (1000 calls)
• High public acceptance of increased charges
• Lower acceptance of decreased frequencies of
  waste collection

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Results

• 2147 compost bins sold
• 1054 organic waste bins returned
• 285 grants for purchase of wood chippers, grass
  mulcher or low maintenance grass seed

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Results
Organic waste collection
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Costs include collection, treatment and taxes.
Overhead costs, tarification and refunds not
included
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Costs include collection, treatment and taxes.
Overhead costs, tarification and refunds not
included
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Budget

• Communication 1.22 euro per inhabitant
• Waste prevention 1.42 euro per inhabitant (
  80 co-financed)
• Decreased cost for waste collection and
  treatment 10.8 euro per inhabitant
• Increased incomes from tarification 11.3 euro
  per inhabitant
• Increased customer satisfaction