On the use of behavioural instruments to affect individual waste production and disposal decisions

This chapter provides a survey on the applicability of insights from behavioural and experimental economics for the design of waste policies. Individual waste production and disposal decisions are a relevant component of everyday choices, especially considering their environmental and social impact. Several contributions from the economic literature have emphasized the relevance of monetary incentives in affecting waste management decisions, highlighting the impact of unit based pricing and other policies intended to reduce the economic costs of waste disposal activities. A more recent strand of literature, however, has investigated other drivers motivating waste behaviours, including personal and social norms. In the chapter, we first introduce the basic theoretical framework to analyse the benefits and costs of different waste management decisions and the potential impact of policy instruments. We then briefly review the merits and limits of “traditional” waste policy instruments. We finally focus on the results of the behavioural literature about waste management decisions, in order to understand how conventional economic results and policy recommendations are altered when behavioural suggestions are considered. As specific examples, we analyse the implications of behavioural interventions on two problems related to waste decisions: food waste production and littering