Building a Circular Economy : How to Solve the Mixed Waste Problem at Company Level

Countries all over the world need resources to run their economies and an approach known as ‘circular economy’ can be key to managing such resources sustainably. From a circular economy perspective, countries should strive to reduce the amount of resources they need, followed by reuse and recycling. The largest part of waste in the European Union (EU) is produced by industries and businesses (about 90 percent) although most of the policy effort by public institutions has been on municipal waste, mainly from households.1 Against this backdrop, a two-year regional project in Sweden focused on how to increase the recycling of waste generated by companies, particularly mixed waste. It was shown that recycling could be improved through relatively simple behavioural changes. The project identified six factors that can lead to improved recycling: legislation, leadership, networking, education, simplification and space. The findings indicate that such results can be best achieved through networking and collaboration.