Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK.
Waste Manag Res. 2012 Sep;30(9 Suppl):17-28. doi: 10.1177/0734242X12453609.
Waste prevention is a policy priority in many countries. For example, European Union member states are currently required to prepare a national Waste Prevention Programme. This article reports on a major international review of the evidence base for business waste prevention to underpin such policy-making. A strict definition of waste prevention is used, including waste avoidance, waste reduction at source or in process, and product reuse-recycling is outside the scope of this article. The review was organised with two key dimensions. Eight types of policy intervention were identified: standards, labelling, procurement, commitments and voluntary agreements, communication, incentives, waste minimisation clubs and other business support. Six illustrative sectors were selected: construction and demolition, food and drink, hospitality, retail, automotive and office-based services. Four broad approaches to business waste prevention have been distinguished and used as part of the analytical framework, classified into a two by two matrix, using supply- and demand-side drivers as one axis, and incremental versus radical change as the other. A fundamental focus was on attitudes and behaviours. A conceptual framework is presented to navigate the various behavioural influences on businesses, and to discuss those motivations and barriers for which the evidence is relatively robust. The results suggest that the (financial) benefits to business of waste prevention are potentially huge, and that some progress is being made, but measurement is a challenge. A taster of some of the learnings on the effectiveness of the different policy interventions to promote waste prevention is also presented.
废物预防是许多国家的政策重点。例如，欧盟成员国目前被要求制定国家废物预防计划。本文报告了对商业废物预防证据基础的一项重大国际审查，以为这种政策制定提供支持。本文采用了严格的废物预防定义，包括避免废物、源头或过程中的废物减少，以及产品再利用-回收不在本文的范围之内。审查是按照两个关键维度组织的。确定了八种类型的政策干预措施：标准、标签、采购、承诺和自愿协议、沟通、激励措施、废物最小化俱乐部和其他商业支持。选择了六个具有代表性的行业：建筑和拆除、食品和饮料、酒店、零售、汽车和以办公室为基础的服务。已经区分了四种广泛的商业废物预防方法，并将其用作分析框架的一部分，分为四乘四矩阵，将供应和需求驱动因素作为一个轴，将增量与激进变革作为另一个轴。一个基本重点是态度和行为。提出了一个概念框架，用于引导对企业的各种行为影响，并讨论那些证据相对可靠的动机和障碍。结果表明，企业废物预防的（财务）收益可能是巨大的，并且已经取得了一些进展，但衡量是一个挑战。还介绍了一些关于促进废物预防的不同政策干预措施的有效性的经验教训。
