Citizen training and the urban waste footprint

Diverting waste away from and zero waste to landfills are sustainability policy aims of local and national governments around the world, particularly in countries with large waste footprints from rapid consumption growth and urbanisation. Yet the study of waste remains highly under researched. Many countries in the developing world have introduced laws to mandate segregation at the source of waste generation to reduce their landfilling loads and improve efficiency, but waste segregation rates remain low in many places. This paper studies a large data collection and experiment that trained citizens in waste segregation practices, recycling and their environmental benefits undertaken in the city of Patna in India. In a causal research design, the training changed behaviour through enhanced knowledge and skills in waste segregation, boosting household productivity in this activity so that segregation-at-source increased sharply among households receiving the training, amounting to greenhouse gas emission savings of over a quarter of initial household emissions from landfilling of waste. Put together with substantial spatial and temporal spillovers estimated from spatial discontinuity and multilateral proximity models, overall this resulted in big economic and environmental benefits, that were double digit multiples of the costs. Citizen training, when effectively designed and implemented, improves the efficiency of household waste segregation to reduce the urban waste footprint and promote global climate change mitigation.