Sustainable Management of Household Biodegradable Waste: Lessons from Home Composting Programmes

The concept of urban sustainable development, although not new, has been expanded nowadays and included in the set of strategies adopted by a continuously increased number of governments and local authorities worldwide. Urban sustainable development derived from the need of local authorities to adopt alternative measures in order to make cities viable for their citizens. This study focuses on the home composting scheme which implemented in the municipality of Neapoli-Sykies in Northern Greece, while indicating the effect this programme had on citizens’ behaviour in terms of urban sustainability. The monitoring of this programme took place both at its early and middle phases of implementation by interviewing composting bins’ users. The outcome of the study reinforces the belief that building up knowledge should be the very first and main step before implementing such alternative schemes.