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

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