Department of Planning, University of Aalborg, Aalborg, Denmark.
Waste Manag Res. 2023 Jan;41(1):98-116. doi: 10.1177/0734242X221105438. Epub 2022 Sep 6.
A circular economy (CE) aims to reduce waste and encourages keeping products, components, and materials circulating in the economy. Furthermore, following the European waste hierarchy, preparing for re-use (PfR) is regarded as a better waste management option than recycling. Nevertheless, too many products with a reuse potential end up as waste. This includes residuals from products that have no major value and are therefore not demanded by the current system. As a result, products are prematurely recycled. This contradicts both the priority order of the waste hierarchy and the principles of a CE. This article investigates the potential of and constraints to reusing products that are disposed of at municipal recycling stations. It aims to improve our understanding of these issues and offers possible solutions that could enable municipal waste companies to transition from waste to resource management and reach the upper levels of the waste hierarchy, preparing waste for re-use. Interviews with relevant stakeholders, desk studies and knowledge obtained from participating in waste conferences over the past 3 years are all used to analyze PfR practice at five municipal waste management companies in Denmark. Pioneers with respect to circularity in the waste sector, which have been experimenting with and initiating PfR schemes concerning a range of products, including building materials, furniture, white goods and bicycles, are considered because they support the inner cycles of the CE. However, results reveal that the current transition consists of complex processes connected to an ambivalent legal framework and struggles over access and rights to resources. Further, a more coherent conceptual understanding of PfR is needed as the current understanding has a too narrow focus on restoring product value rather than coupling PfR processes to the market. Thus, challenges to achieving higher PfR rates seem to go beyond engaging in strategic partnerships, creating financial incentives and setting separate targets for PfR. Consequently, a more holistic investigation appears to be necessary to deepen our understanding of processes of resource management and use and the contestation that exists over these. Furthermore, a wider mapping of the actors operating in the tension area of PfR, including their willingness to cooperate and negotiate a zone of agreement, could prove beneficial to practitioners and policy developers alike.
循环经济（CE）旨在减少浪费，并鼓励将产品、部件和材料保持在经济循环中。此外，按照欧洲废物管理层次结构，准备再利用（PfR）被视为比回收更好的废物管理选择。然而，太多具有再利用潜力的产品最终成为废物。这包括那些没有重大价值且因此不受当前系统需求的产品的残余物。结果，产品被过早地回收。这既违反了废物管理层次结构的优先顺序，也违反了循环经济的原则。本文探讨了在市政回收站处置的产品再利用的潜力和限制。它旨在提高我们对这些问题的理解，并提供可能的解决方案，使城市废物公司能够从废物管理向资源管理转型，并达到废物管理层次结构的较高层次，为再利用做好准备。对丹麦五家城市废物管理公司的相关利益相关者的访谈、案头研究以及过去 3 年参加废物会议获得的知识，都被用来分析 PfR 实践。考虑到那些在废物领域具有循环性先驱地位的公司，因为它们支持循环经济的内部循环，一直在尝试和启动涉及建筑材料、家具、白色家电和自行车等各种产品的 PfR 计划。然而，结果表明，当前的转型过程涉及到复杂的流程，这些流程与矛盾的法律框架以及对资源的获取和权利的斗争有关。此外，需要对 PfR 有一个更连贯的概念理解，因为当前的理解过于狭隘，只关注恢复产品价值，而不是将 PfR 流程与市场联系起来。因此，实现更高的 PfR 率似乎不仅仅是参与战略伙伴关系、创造财务激励和为 PfR 设定单独的目标就能解决的挑战。因此，似乎需要更全面的调查来加深我们对资源管理和利用过程以及这些过程中存在的争议的理解。此外，对在 PfR 的紧张领域中运作的行为者进行更广泛的映射，包括他们合作和协商达成协议的意愿，可能对实践者和政策制定者都有好处。
