• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Pay as You Throw Threshold Tariff: Evidence on the Incentive to Recycle
  • Contributor: Rizzo, Leonzio; Secomandi, Riccardo
  • Published: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2024
  • Published in: The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 24 (2024) 2, Seite 361-395
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2022-0448
  • ISSN: 1935-1682
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: Abstract We study the impact of the introduction of a pay as you throw tariff in Ferrara which presented a low status-quo level of waste recycling. We find that it increased the waste recycling share by 40 % points and decreased the total waste per capita by 30 % points. Our dataset allows the split of the overall effect on waste recycling, finding that 63 % of recycling is due to organic material and 37 % to multimaterial (paper, glass, and plastic). This result suggests that packaging does not constitute the major waste recycling collection. Moreover, we find both an increase in waste recycling and a decrease in total waste, contrary to other case studies with a higher starting level of waste recycling. This leads to the important conclusion that pricing waste is effective in reducing pollution if the waste recycling level is sufficiently low.