Sixth International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

The waste generated from the accommodation sector adds additional pressure on municipal waste management services and the environment. Furthermore, if the fixed waste tariffs charged to accommodation establishments are below the average cost of waste collection and treatment service, deficits in the municipal budgets or cross-subsidies may arise. Thus, the PAYT tariff seems to be the ideal economic tool to reduce waste generation and avoiding budget imbalances and cross-subsidies. The main objective of this paper is the design and evaluation of the impact of a PAYT tariff for the accommodation sector in a mature tourist destination. A database of 60 accommodation establishments observed during the same 12 weeks in 2018 and 2019 is available. An econometric model is developed for estimating the impact of the PAYT on waste reduction relative to overnights, controlling the unobserved characteristic of each establishment and the time effects. As result, a two-part PAYT tariff is designed basing in a pay-per-bin mechanism, introducing some incentives: 1) adaptation of the establishment to the door-to-door collection system to avoid an increase of 300% over the initial fixed waste rate; 2) the waste minimization, as a response to avoid the penalty for generating more mixed waste than the municipal average in relative terms. The impacts of the PAYT tariff are 1) increase of municipal revenues ensuring the polluter pays principle with the novelty that those establishments generating a greater quantity of mixed waste relative to size pays more than proportionally; 2) reduction in the mixed waste generated, around 35%.