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Hervé Corvellec.

Hervé Corvellec

Professor

Hervé Corvellec.

Waste policies gone soft : An analysis of European and Swedish waste prevention plans

Author

  • Nils Johansson
  • Hervé Corvellec

Summary, in English

This paper presents an analysis of European and Swedish national and municipal waste prevention plans to determine their capability of preventing the generation of waste. An analysis of the stated objectives in these waste prevention plans and the measures they propose to realize them exposes six problematic features: (1) These plans ignore what drives waste generation, such as consumption, and (2) rely as much on conventional waste management goals as they do on goals with the aim of preventing the generation of waste at the source. The Swedish national and local plans (3) focus on small waste streams, such as food waste, rather than large ones, such as industrial and commercial waste. Suggested waste prevention measures at all levels are (4) soft rather than constraining, for example, these plans focus on information campaigns rather than taxes and bans, and (5) not clearly connected to incentives and consequences for the actors involved. The responsibility for waste prevention has been (6) entrusted to non-governmental actors in the market such as companies that are then free to define which proposals suit them best rather than their being guided by planners. For improved waste prevention regulation, two strategies are proposed. First, focus primarily not on household-related waste, but on consumption and production of products with high environmental impact and toxicity as waste. Second, remove waste prevention from the waste hierarchy to make clear that, by definition, waste prevention is not about the management of waste.

Department/s

  • Department of Service Studies

Publishing year

2018-07-13

Language

English

Pages

322-332

Publication/Series

Waste Management: international journal of integrated waste management, science and technology

Volume

77

Issue

July

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Environmental Management

Keywords

  • Waste management
  • Waste plans
  • Waste policy
  • Waste prevention
  • Waste prevention programs

Status

Published

Project

  • From waste management to waste prevention. Closing implementation gaps through sustainable action nets

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0956-053X