ABSTRACT
The waste management sector is undergoing profound transformations that challenge its structures and institutions. The function and position of waste management and recycling companies have been changing, and this process accelerates as the circular economy consolidates as part of the strategy to implement green shifts. This article argues that scholars, practitioners and policymakers interested in waste management could benefit from building bridges with the field of industrial dynamics. Industrial dynamics is concerned with the driving forces of economic transformation, with focus on not just outcomes but processes and structures. This type of research is crucial in face of transformations going on in the sector. Three crucial themes for cross-disciplinary investigation are: (i) industry evolution and institutions, (ii) business organization and management, and (iii) technological change, innovation and entrepreneurship. Waste management is a lively, complex and diverse sector, whose process of reinvention present the opportunity to research profound industrial transformations in real time. By systematically investigating the industrial dynamics of waste management, it becomes possible to uncover the structural changes underpinning the transformation of waste into resources, their driving forces and the directions to which they point, while mindful of the evolving discourses and the wider technological and institutional landscape.
ABSTRACT
Plastic litter is accumulating on pristine northern European beaches, including the European Arctic, and questions remain about the exact origins and sources. Here we investigate plausible fishery and consumer-related sources of beach littering, using a combination of information from expert stakeholder discussions, litter observations and a quantitative tool - a drift model - for forecasting and backtracking likely pathways of pollution. The numerical experiments were co-designed together with practice experts. The drift model itself was forced by operational ocean current, wave and weather forecasts. The model results were compared to a database of marine litter on beaches, collected every year according to the standardized monitoring program of the Oslo/Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR). By comparing the heterogeneous beach observations to the model simulations, we are able to highlight probable sources. Two types of plastic are considered in the simulations: floating plastic litter and submerged, buoyant microplastics. We find that the model simulations are plausible in terms of the potential sources and the observed plastic litter. Our analysis results in identifiable sources of plastic waste found on each beach, providing a basis for stakeholder actions.
