Waste management and circular economy

For too long, polluters have not paid the full price for the damage they cause to our shared environment.  The Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) principle seeks to address this by pricing in the cost of throwing things away. PAYT systems reward people and business who responsibly separate rubbish and penalises those who do not.

The PAYT Toolkit enables European cities to create systems that price in the cost of throwing away waste. It provides municipal administrations with a comprehensive process to institute PAYT: assessment of their current waste management situation, creation of appropriate IT systems, involvement of citizens and much more.
 
The Toolkit was created by the Italian municipality of Prato as part of EU Urban Agenda's partnership on circular economy. The urban Agenda directly connects European, national and city policymakers in order to improve regulation, knowledge and access to funding. CEMR represents European municipalities and its national associations within the Urban Agenda and actively contributes to most of the thematic partnerships.

Checkout the Urban Agenda website to discover some of the other actions being taken, from air quality to urban mobility. What’s more, you can also attend the next online meeting on 8 September of the platform for cooperation on the environment, dedicated to the circular economy as an enabler for a sustainable recovery. The outcome of the partnership's work will be presented at this event organised by the European Commission (DG Environment) and the Committee of the Regions.