What Role can Municipalities take to Accelerate Development in Regional Waste Management Systems towards a Zero Waste Society

Abstract: Abstract During recent decades society has been striving towards a circular economy where minimisation and prevention of waste is the key objective. An increasing world population coupled with subsequent increasing waste volumes and diminishing raw materials is primarily driving the movement from a linear towards a circular economy. Further, it is widely acknowledged that municipalities have a significant role to play in the development of future waste management systems. Municipalities also have an obligation to implement EU waste directives aimed at developing circular economies within each EU member state. Based on these factors coupled with the gap in literature regarding the municipalities’ role in developing regional waste management systems, we chose to focus our study around the role of municipalities in accelerating the development of a regional waste management system. This was achieved by conducting a study at Göteborgsregionens Kommunalförbund (GR), that include 13 municipalities. Our research question explored ”What role can Swedish municipalities take to accelerate development in waste management towards a zero waste society?” Our empirical findings, outlined from three key actors perspectives (municipalities, waste firms and researcher organisations) explored the current waste management system in the region as well as various trends and barriers influencing the development of the system. Our findings also highlight how the current situation, trends and barriers differ between three specific problematic waste fractions: plastic, plaster and textile. Based on this analysis, we were able to develop four key roles we believe municipalities are able to adopt in order to accelerate regional development of a waste management system towards a zero waste society. The municipal roles recommended are: Co-ordinator, Pioneer, Legislator and Financer. We believe municipalities have an important role to play in removing barriers to allow for the natural development towards a circular economy to unfold. We believe that the four roles we have proposed are key to succeeding with this. Further, we were able to suggest specific changes for GR to enable implementation of circular economy in their region. Finally, since the barriers and trends identified in the region are aligned with international literature to a great extent, we have reason to believe that our findings and proposed municipal roles can be generalised to other regions in Sweden, or even other countries with a similar level of development.