Scale as an 'Active Progenitor' in the Metamorphosis of the Waste Management Hierarchy in Member States: The Case of the Republic of Ireland

Abstract

In the light of the raft of legislation introduced by the European Commission since the late 1980s, waste management planning in the European Union (EU) is currently undergoing tumultuous restructuring. At the heart of this restructuring is the requirement by member states to formulate waste management plans that embrace the Commission's central concept of the waste management hierarchy. This article begins with the assertion that the grounding of the waste management hierarchy in different European countries reflects members' ongoing difficulties balancing supra-national environmental regulations with the imperatives of national accumulation strategies. Central to negotiating this tightrope has been a tremendous transformation, modification, re-jigging and re-calibration of the hierarchies of waste management planning institutions in member states. The core argument advanced in this article is that far from being a neutral or technical or practical side show, contemporary (re)scalings of waste management planning in Europe must be approached as being centrally implicated in the constitution of forms of environmental controls that serve rather than burden the interests of leading capitals. This argument is illustrated through a detailed case study of recent scalar inventions in waste management planning in the Republic of Ireland.

Policy Beliefs in Spatial Decisions: Contrasting Core Beliefs Concerning Space-making for Waste Infrastructure

“…It reflects the controversy between the primacy of creating disposal capacity (the bottom of the waste management hierarchy) over investing in waste reduction and reuse (the higher levels of that hierarchy). The use of top-down planning and the introduction of new competences at higher governance levels are examples of how rescaling is affecting the implementation of waste management (Boyle, 2003).…”

The European Waste Hierarchy: From the Sociomateriality of Waste to a Politics of Consumption

“…From problem to resource: the disassembly of waste European waste policy works in different ways under different national conditions (Boyle, 2003), but the EWH challenges more fundamental assumptions of difference. In a fi rst step we show how the EWH articulates economy and environment in a paradoxical relationship with each other.…”

“…The EWH promotes both vertical integration of the different phases in a product lifecycle and coordinated action across institutional and organizational boundaries (EC, undated;1999b;Roberts, 2004;Watson et al, 2008). The translation from policy principles to practice is complex, and economic incitements combine with environmental concerns in different organizational, logistic, and political solutions (Boyle, 2003;Fischer, 2011).…”

Garbage matters

“…This is apparent in work that discusses various facets of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in megacities (Ehlers, 2009; Kopfmuller et al, 2009), in comparative cases (Zhang et al, 2010), in EU New Member States like Greece (Lasaridi, 2009), and in the context of new regulations such as producer responsibility (Deutz, 2009). Questions that arise from this view of waste often involve the implications of waste management for urban sustainability (Ehlers, 2009; Kopfmuller et al, 2009), the effects of supra-local regulation on municipal waste management, issues of privatization (Samson, 2010), the efficacy of community-based waste management (CBWM) (Pariseau et al, 2006, 2008) and, in more recent work, (urban) governance (Bhuiyan, 2010; Boyle, 2003; Bulkeley et al, 2007; Davies, 2009; Davies and O’Callaghan-Platt, 2008; Davoudi, 2009; Eden et al, 2006; Forsyth, 2005; Oosterveer, 2009; Van Horen, 2004).…”