LIFE: innovating with less waste

The things we throw in the bin rarely get a second thought – it is, after all, the stuff we no longer want or use. Yet, every person in the EU discards more than 0.5 tonnes of waste annually and less than half of that is currently recycled. To mark the International Day of Zero Waste we look at two LIFE projects testing new ways to cut household waste and boost recycling across Europe. 

LIFE IP Smart Waste focused on the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of southern France where households produce more waste than the national average – around 457 kg/person compared to 344 kg/person across France as a whole – with much of it being sent to landfill or incineration. 

The project introduced 144 actions to improve waste management, such as increasing the number of recycling collection containers in urban areas and providing households with composters for kitchen and garden waste. 

By the time it closed last year, the project had increased the amount of waste collected for recycling by 17 000 tonnes per year and the capacity for recovering organic waste by 20 000 tonnes. It also cut the total amount of municipal waste collected by 2 500 tonnes per year by reusing waste items. 

Meanwhile in Italy and Spain LIFE-REthinkWASTE tested innovative incentive schemes to reduce the amount of unsorted waste and drive up recycling rates in 4 different areas. The project combined ‘pay-as-you-throw’ (PAYT) schemes – where citizens receive a personalised bill based on the amount of waste they actually produce – with a ‘know-as-you-throw’ (KAYT) smartphone information campaign about disposing of common items properly. 

The schemes were piloted in the Italian cities of Bassano, Bitetto and Varese, as well as Sant Just Desver in Barcelona, Spain. Bassano, for example, saw residual waste fall by 27.8% in 2022 compared to 2018 — although other areas saw more modest reductions. 

A total of 64 municipalities combined PAYT and KAYT in their waste management plans, with another 30 in Catalonia and Marche regions expected to follow. The REthinkWASTE project team also helped to train more than 320 EU municipalities and waste management companies.  

With EU municipal waste rising 10% over the past decade to 229 million tonnes in 2023, these approaches are vital to meet European Green Deal waste targets. Both LIFE IP Smart Waste and LIFE-REthinkWASTE also contribute to the EU’s Waste Framework Directive and Circular Economy action plan.