BEHAVE

Presentation

BEHaviour Analysis and Valorisation for Elevated waste prevention strategies

Project co-funded under the Interreg Europe Fund of the European Union, 2025 - 2029.
The BEHAVE project is co-financed with EUR 872,984.40 from the Interreg Europe programme, EUR 118,150.00 from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism, and EUR 360,711.60 from public and private partner contributions.

BEHAVE explores and valorizes behavioral intelligence to improve waste prevention, separate collection, and litter prevention strategies in public spaces and tourism destinations. The project focuses on understanding the behavior of citizens and users in non-residential areas (tourism destinations, outdoor spaces, city centers) to deploy innovative waste management solutions like Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT), Know-As-You-Throw (KAYT), and Save-As-You-Throw (SAYT) combined with nudging principles, reuse schemes and smart waste management solutions. The goal is to challenge existing policy instruments that aren't delivering expected results outside residential areas and translate behavioral insights into effective circular economy practices.

Activities

Over four years, six partners from Slovenia, Belgium, Croatia, Italy, and Norway will analyse behaviour in diverse public spaces and develop tailored waste prevention and separation solutions. Through best practice exchange and pilot actions using tools like KAYT, SAYT, and PAYT, they aim to raise awareness, incentivise proper waste habits, and link pricing to waste generation. The project also promotes green public procurement, supports circular economy goals, trains stakeholders, informs policy improvements, and keeps the public engaged.

BEHAVE is not just a research project—it’s a practical toolkit for cities and regions aiming to bring the circular economy closer to people and improve waste practices through a deep understanding of human behaviour, public space, and habits. It treats public space as a space of opportunity—where small behavioural shifts can yield significant environmental benefits.

ACR+ would have a double role in the BEHAV-E project. 

On one hand, as a technical advisor, ACR+ will monitor and ensure the quality of the project through the revision and selection of good practices and their exchange, as well as dissemination through the policy learning platform, assisting project partners in organising relevant workshops and webinars as their moderator and overall - ensure that the project follows the defined workplan, generates relevant and quality content and facilitate the synergies between the BEHAV-E project and other likeminded intiatives, as well as individual practitioners in the field across Europe. With their experience and network built around behavior analysis, ACR+ will also oversee this important aspect of the project and provide relevant knowledge and input when needed. Finally, the production of relevant policy briefs and publications will also fall under ACR+'s responsibility. 

On the other hand, ACR+ will be responsible for supporting lead partner's overal communication and dissemination of milestones, deliverables and activities in general, as well as undertaking individual activities (video production, interview recordings). While lead partner will oversee the website, newsletter and social media management, the development of the project's visual identity and production of relevant communication material, such as printed materials and audio-video productions. ACR+ will support the organiation of each dissemination event, including the Final Event. 

Partners

BEHAVE’s lead partner is MONM, Mestna Občina Novo Mesto (SI). The other partners are:

  • ACR+, Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management (BE)
  • IRIS Salten (NOR)
  • DUNEA, Dubrovnik – Neretva County Development Agency (HR)
  • IBGE-BIMN, Brussels Environment (BE)
  • ATA ANcona (IT)

Project responsible(s)