Price Salience and the Design of Market-Based Environmental Policies: A Comparison between Food Waste Pricing Policies in South Korea

Price-based environmental policies aim to incentivize individuals to reduce consumption behaviors that negatively impact the environment. However, cognitive constraints often limit individuals’ ability to associate waste disposal with the costs imposed by such pricing mechanisms. This study compares South Korea’s shift from volume-based to weight-based food waste pricing policies, which makes disposal costs more salient to households by directly linking them to food waste amounts. Panel analyses show that weight-based food waste pricing policies are effective in reducing food waste, suggesting that enhanced price salience can drive behavioral change among policy targets, although this effect diminishes over time.