Preparing Waste for Reuse: Factors Influencing the Implementation and Effectiveness of Preparation for Reuse in Municipal Waste Management

Sammanfattning

Only a small fraction of municipal waste is currently prepared for reuse (PfR), despite it being the prioritized waste‑treatment option in the EU Waste Hierarchy and a key contribution to slowing resource loops within the Circular Economy. Although many discarded products retain both functional and economic value, the absence of appropriate infrastructure and processes within municipal waste management companies (MWMCs) hinders the recovery of this reuse potential. This thesis aims to address this gap between policy ambition and practical implementation, by employing Socio-Technical Systems (STS) theory to analyze how social, institutional, technological, and organizational factors influence the implementation and effectiveness of PfR initiatives in Swedish MWMCs. Furthermore, a comparison of how these factors operate across different operational PfR approaches is included to help inform effective strategies for PfR. A multiple-case study design utilizing mixed-methods was applied across ten PfR initiatives in Sweden. The findings show that the four factor categories shape PfR outcomes in interdependent ways: social factors such as awareness and demand are crucial for PfR effectiveness; institutional factors including legal ambiguity and political priorities affect the strategic direction of PfR at the local level; technological factors related to logistics, system design, and quality of goods shape the operational feasibility of PfR; and organizational factors such as competencies, and economic and legal perceptions shape the choice of PfR approach. The study concludes that PfR effectiveness is highly context dependent and that even though several barriers have been established in the literature as well as identified in this thesis, the findings showcase how organizational strategies have been utilized as levers to effective PfR implementation. These insights can support more effective strategies for circular resource management within MWMCs and highlight the need for future research on the relation between the local conditions’ impact on PfR effectiveness.