This study investigates the perceptions of three Swedish stakeholders towards the contested use of waste incineration bottom ash as aggregates outside landfills: waste producers, users and authorities. The interview study shows that the stakeholders lack incentives to circulate bottom ash. Waste producers have a functional outlet for bottom ash by using it as landfill cover. Since the transition from gravel to crushed rock, the availability of natural aggregates is enormous in Sweden at low environmental and economic costs. This causes the potential users of bottom ash to prioritize conventional aggregates. In cases where waste-based aggregates are nevertheless used, they are taken from project-internal sources. Hence, there are few incentives for the authorities to change the currently unfavorable regulations for using bottom ash as aggregates. With unclear environmental benefits and contested interests, the rationale for circulating bottom ash appears to be driven by morality.

This article examines a specific subtype of informal waste picking: deposit picking. Despite its global prevalence, waste picking hasneither been extensively studied in the Nordic countries nor in the context of a deposit-refund system. Through interviews and textanalyses of waste pickers in Stockholm, Sweden, similarities and differences between deposit picking and traditional waste pickingare uncovered. For example, unlike other waste materials, the income from deposits is stable. The focus on beverage containers andthe ability of reverse vending machines to sort the containers, lowers the knowledge threshold to begin the activity. The lightweightnature of beverage containers makes collection mobile, and deposit pickers often carry only a bag. The deposit pickers are mainly older,poor and male. Similar to traditional waste pickers, deposit pickers are central to the formal waste system, but their work is invisible,and foreign deposit pickers, in particular, are stigmatized. The dual invisibility of their labour and contributions, coupled with theirindependence from formal social systems, highlights the need for internal organization and representation within the formal systems.

This study examines the notion of substitutionalism, which assumes that the introduction of sustainable alternatives will inherently displace unsustainable production and consumption systems. By studying the emergence of two historical examples of sustainable consumption, book and video rental, this study offers a unique opportunity to understand the effects of sharing from a distance and as a dominant consumption practice. The findings show that commercial lending did not displace new sales; instead, it transformed these subjects into mass-consumer products. Rental offered a lower price, greater supply, established new branches, and turned reading books and watching movies at home into consumer cultures. Producers initially resisted rental, but seized shares of the income as rental grew, and controlled the rental market so that cannibalization of the conventional consumption practices was avoided. This research challenges the core assumption of substitutionalism and highlights the need for a deeper understanding of market dynamics.

Grönmålning uppstår när organisationer överdriver miljönyttan med sin verksamhet, produkter eller tjänster, jämför med engelskans Greenwashing. Denna marknadsföringsstrategi utnyttjar allmänhetens tilltagande oro för miljöförändringarna, men varierar i uttryck och grad av avsiktlighet, vilseledning, och investering. Grönmålning sträcker sig från subtil användning av gröna färgskalor i marknadsföringen eller användningen av egenkomponerade hållbarhetssymboler, till spridningen av felaktig fakta eller förenklade påståenden om en produkts eller tjänsts miljöpåverkan. Användningen av vilseledande kommunikation underminerar inte bara organisationers trovärdighet utan kan också vara olaglig.