Improving renovation waste management in Sweden: The role of the demolition company

Paper in proceeding, 2019

Recent directives expressed by the European commission are targeting that 70 percent of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste should be recycled compared to the current ratio of 50 percent. The common assumption is that these goals are achievable by putting pressure on the construction industry. It is however unclear how these figures can be achieved. Even though there's been a strong focus on waste management activities within the construction management literature, especially during the design and construction phases, the actual work performed by subcontractors is often missing. In particular, the role of the demolition company that is in charge of both the handling of waste on site and its distribution afterwards is overlooked. This paper aims at identifying and analysing the perceived challenges met by these companies to increase recycling. To do so, we build on institutional work which enables us to identify taken for granted institutionalized behaviour on a micro level. Drawing on qualitative research methods, we collect empirical material through semi-structured interviews with both site managers and demolition subcontractors and observation of practices on site of renovation projects in the region of Gothenburg, Sweden. The result identifies how current institutions are maintained and reproduced, preventing the development of new practices and which actors may disrupt the existing institutions and thus enable change towards more sustainable waste management practices.