The city of Besançon implemented an incentive-based financing scheme via the bin tax in 1999, called REOM (Redevance d'Enlèvement des Ordures Ménagères). Thanks to the participation of the city in the Greater Besançon waste authority, CAGB, the scheme was transferred to the ring of 59 municipalities. This bin tax is one of the multiple versions of the PAYT (pay-as-you-throw) system, charging per volume generated by household. In order to have a, somehow, fair scheme for the service rendered, the municipalities of the ring introduced a fixed part and a variable part according to the number of people in the household and the frequency of the service provided. The system ensured that an increase in waste volume would suppose an increase in the waste fee, increasing more with higher frequencies than with higher bin volumes. The measure had an effect after the first year of implementation, decreasing the residual waste by 1 % and increasing the recyclable fraction by the same amount, while the city saved EUR 5.25 per capita per year. The authorities also noticed a change in the citizens’ habits regarding waste.
A new system was implemented after the LIFE project “Waste on a diet”, with a higher impact in the municipality of Besançon, achieving an immediate reduction of 10 % of the residual waste fraction in the test phase and 7 % in the actual implementation