Incentivised recycling in Curitiba, Brazil

"Extensive publicity and education campaigns were used to encourage residents to separate their garbage, with a strong focus on the role of children as change agents. Several communication campaigns were aimed specifically at encouraging children to separate their waste at home, mainly through the city’s elementary schools.

The recycling program - loosely translated as “Garbage that is not Garbage” (Lixoquenão é lixo) - was based on encouraging home separation of garbage into organic and non-organic components. Recyclable waste was collected once a week by a private contractor, and taken to a processing centre owned by the city. The facility employs homeless people and recovering"

The city created the “Garbage Purchase” program. This was aimed at encouraging neighbourhood associations to become involved in the management of centralised garbage containers on the periphery of areas that are difficult for collection trucks to access. Residents associations work with the city government to distribute bags and control the recyclables collected by each family. To incentivise the public to get involved, every bag filled with 8 to 10 kg of waste could be exchanged for a bus ticket. The value of these tickets was equivalent to the cost of conventional garbage collection, but did not involve any direct expense by the city as bus operator companies are remunerated based on mileage and not passenger numbers."