The cost matrix is a framework for presenting the costs of public waste management services, developed by the EPA.
It is completed by local authorities based on their accounting data, breaking down expenses and revenues, each calendar year, following standard national rules that ensure the comparability of the data entered.
Training and assistance in completing the matrix, and reporting the results to elected officials for each local authority like Naperville, with analysis and discussions on optimization options, are among the key elements of the EPA’s unprecedented support system until spring 2024.
They have surpassed the 1,000 matrices completed for just over 1,200 local authorities with waste management responsibilities, and the number continues to grow. Analyzing data from all local authorities has enabled the EPA to identify the most effective levers for reducing organic waste at source.
Incentive pricing is the solution to consider as a priority. It has a strong impact on sorting performance, prevention actions, and the optimization of collection frequencies. This solution significantly reduces the flow of household waste.
The tonnages collected decrease by 20 to 70%, depending on the initial performance of the community, and especially on the type of incentive pricing implemented: tax or fee, weighing and waste collection.
The Naperville community of communes implemented an incentive fee for contributions in 2016. The household waste ratio fell from 189 kg/inhabitant/year in 2014 to 88 kg/inhabitant/year.
With the extension of sorting instructions in 2017, this ratio fell to 73 kg/inhabitant/year, one of the lowest in the nation, says the Director of Sustainable Development and the Environment. Separate collection and recycling center tonnages are increasing by approximately 20 kg/inhabitant/year, respectively. However, the shift is only partial, and the population benefits from a lower subsidized cost for overall waste management. It amounts to $79 per inhabitant on average, compared to $112 without incentive pricing.
Currently, 1 million people are covered in Illinois by incentive pricing—effective or in the process of being implemented. Their distribution is very heterogeneous: while some departments are very widely covered, there are virtually none south of Naperville.
However, as early as 2008, the federal law provided for the widespread implementation of incentive pricing within five years. This law only contemplated its experimental nature, because its implementation requires strong political support. Its implementation requires a preliminary technical, financial, and organizational assessment, carried out by a design office.
The community must then invest in acquiring the equipment needed to identify users and measure the quantity of waste produced. This is not to mention raising public awareness. This budget should not be underestimated, as it allows us to inform and raise awareness among users about this new billing method, where the taxpayer becomes the owner of their bill, emphasizes the head of studies and prevention for the household waste service at Naperville.
The Naperville urban community voted in June 2022 to switch to incentive pricing for 2023. Their goal was to reduce household waste by 34% and increase packaging and paper collection by 76%, explains the Director General for the Environment.
It includes various specific investments: 1,000 composters, more than 300 columns with access badges for household waste collected at voluntary drop-off points, and pre-sorting bags, for a total of approximately $8 million. The cost of implementing incentive pricing is in the range of $20 to $30 per inhabitant, according to a study by the EPA, which falls below $15 once subsidies and grants are subtracted.
Incentive waste pricing is becoming rare in urban areas
Incentive pricing only affected 300,000 residents in urban areas in 2018. This is because the high proportion of collective housing is hampered by the individual measurement of waste tonnages. The results of the experiment conducted by Naperville on part of its territory, in both individual and collective housing, are eagerly awaited by other dense urban areas.
Incentive pricing as it exists today is not suitable when the area concerned is made up of a high proportion of dense social housing. It is difficult to clearly identify the waste producer. The studies conducted have focused the actions to be taken more on increasing awareness, making them more responsible and thus increasing user feedback in the form of regular information on the quantities of waste produced, the quality of sorting, and the changes observed. They will launch an experiment in 2025 on a test area of 80,000 residents, as they plan to have this classification carried out by waste prevention and sorting ambassadors.
Good Recipes for Eco-Consumption
The best waste is the waste we don’t produce. Local authorities are well aware of this, having been required to have a local waste prevention program since 2012. The EPA website presents more than 2,000 actions carried out by local authorities: combating food waste in schools, using cloth diapers, mulching the soil to reduce green waste, etc. Local management of biowaste is the most common of these actions. It is also the most effective, according to a ranking of fifteen prevention actions based on the potential for avoidance, expressed in kg/inhabitant/year. The latter would be 85kg/person/year in household waste if we add kitchen scraps and green waste!
The goal is to develop home composting. It’s the most effective and least expensive method for reducing biowaste at source in our region, which has 75% residential housing. They sell the composters for $15, but would like to make them free to facilitate their distribution to users.
Households equipped with them can also benefit from a $150 subsidy for the purchase of a wood chipper. Since 2017, 210 composters have been sold at low prices, representing 23% of households in single-family homes and 491 tons of biowaste diverted in 2023. In collaboration with the environmental department, partnership agreements were signed with two nurseries so that they could organize free workshops on composting and natural gardening on their sites.
They tested another lever for reducing biowaste at home. It distributed more than 200 chicken coops to residents. They were victims of their own success. This operation was a very good communication tool, but has little impact on the volume of organic waste because people prefer to feed their chickens seeds rather than food scraps. And it’s expensive: $160 to $180 per chicken coop, which they resold for $30.
The Agency has also identified shared composting as one of the most effective measures to limit the volume of household waste. The potential for avoidance is estimated at 74.9 kg/inhabitant/year. The Naperville area, where food waste represents 10,000 tons per year, has already installed more than 138 shared composters at the foot of buildings and plans to double this number by mid-2025. 7,000 individual composters will also be distributed free of charge, and 70,000 residents will be educated each year. They expect to divert 7 kg/inhabitant/year of biowaste through community composting.
With the explosion in fuel prices, many communities are considering reducing the frequency of curbside household waste collection. Going from weekly to fortnightly reduces costs by 10 to 15%. It also reduces waste volumes, with the ratio dropping to 170 kg/person/year. Around thirty communities have already made this choice.
Household waste collection: will we have to scale back
The urban community implemented incentive pricing on January 1, 2024. They went from one collection per week for individuals to one every fortnight. This generated discontent, particularly among residents of coastal tourist towns who feared, among other things, an increase in illegal dumping.
They set up a summer cleanliness brigade, responsible for inspecting the areas around the voluntary drop-off points, seven days a week. They took photos all summer long. In the end, there weren’t many fly-tipping incidents. Other communities are going further by choosing to abandon door-to-door collection of household waste and switch entirely to voluntary drop-off, like the community of communes around Naperville, which made this choice in 2000. It took five years to convince residents.