KarunaNews Story

In Sydney, Australia, Adam Bushell has saved about $10 a month in waste collection fees since his local council swapped flat fees for a “pay-as-you-throw” system four years ago. While recycling is collected free of charge, microchipped bins for general waste are weighed, and households receive a monthly statement listing how much they threw out and what they owe. Over the last 30 years, pay-as-you-throw waste systems have been gaining traction across the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, France, Italy, Norway, Taiwan, Japan, Canada and the US. In Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city, truck collection of trash bags and cans on the sidewalk was replaced with a network of underground tunnels running beneath the city center. Bergen’s central residents get a key fob for opening collection hatches on the street. Each household can use the hatch eight times a month for free to dispose of general waste, after which they must pay. Items to be recycled can be disposed of for free. In 2022, six years into the program, the city recorded a 9% decrease in residual waste, and a 28% increase in collected plastic. Carrot, the software company behind Bergen’s system, says the next piece of the puzzle is tracking the journey of the plastic collected to find out where it ends up.