Maia, Portugal rewards residents for reducing waste
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The municipality of Maia, Portugal is improving waste management by rewarding residents who produce less undifferentiated trash.
Maia currently achieves a selective waste collection rate of 45 percent, significantly exceeding the national average. The city has already expanded door-to-door collection to 70 percent of its 142,000 inhabitants and plans to reach full population coverage by 2027.
This progress relies on a “Pay As You Throw” system called “Recycle More, Pay Less”, which calculates waste fees based on the amount of undifferentiated waste collected, rather than water consumption. Simulations suggest households using the new system could save around 1.80 euros per month. The Maia municipality also participates in Volta, a national deposit and refund system for beverage packaging, and is the only public operator involved in its logistics.
Since April 2026, Maia has collected approximately 1.6 million packages through Volta, covering around 30 percent of the supermarkets in the municipality. However, the Portuguese Environment Agency, the Regulatory Authority for Water and Waste Services, and SDR Portugal have yet to clarify how data on collection quantities from all points in the network will be shared, which is important for tracking the city’s goals.
