Waste prevention in Sweden 2008-2015: An analysis of key waste prevention initiatives

The increasing importance being placed on waste prevention in Swedish waste
governance raises the question of how waste prevention is defined in practice.
This paper presents a qualitative analysis of a sample of fifty-one key Swedish
waste prevention initiatives with the purpose of identifying which kind of
actions are imagined, promoted, and set into motion under the label of waste
prevention. The analysis shows that despite their apparent variety, the initiatives
in the sample boil down to three main types of actions: raising awareness
about the need to prevent waste, increasing material efficiency, and developing
sustainable consumption. In contradistinction to the formal definition
of waste prevention in the European Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/
EC), what emerges from analyzing the initiatives in the sample is a definition
of waste prevention as something heterogeneous, contradictory, and evolving.
Such a definition of waste prevention in practice provides an understanding of
the entrepreneurial and organizational dynamics of waste prevention.