Growing fees, modest signals: Evolution of municipal waste charges in Spain (2015–2024)

Achieving the European Union's recycling targets requires a substantial expansion of separate collection, for which municipal waste charges (MWCh) may play a dual role by financing local services and shaping behavioural incentives. This article provides a descriptive longitudinal assessment of MWCh in Spain, a relevant case for countries and regions transitioning from predominantly flat charging systems towards more incentive-oriented models under increasingly demanding recycling and cost recovery requirements. The analysis draws on the fiscal ordinances for 2015 and annually for 2018-2024 of 131 municipalities, covering 33.7% of the Spanish population in 2024. It combines qualitative profiling of charging systems, quantitative benchmarking of household and business fees, estimation of cost coverage using the national budget database for local entities, and a nationwide mapping of pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) schemes. The results show that flat fees continue to predominate for households, whereas fee modulation, where present, remains only weakly related to waste generation or source separation. Cost coverage also remained incomplete, with an estimated value of 52.6% in 2023. PAYT diffusion was still limited: by 1 January 2025, 39 municipalities had adopted PAYT, covering about 1.4% of the Spanish population. More broadly, the Spanish case highlights the challenge of reconciling cost recovery, behavioural incentives and distributive fairness in local waste charging.