Implementing waste policy

Representative business associations, like DLF, appear responsible for the running of return companies by participating as company board members (styret). In this case, DLF went further to widen their scope of responsibility by establishing a new company that deals with food waste.

“DLF is engaged at boards in five recycling companies in different factions: glass, metal, cardboard, plastic beverage bottles and cans (pant), plastics and food waste. Actually, we established a new company, called Matvett. Matvett is based on a four-year old project and established in the

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last year. It is into food waste to reduce it, to get data and to know how to prevent food waste from the start.”

−Informant 14, DLF Although the return companies are managed by business associations at their boards, the government still takes a significant role in these take-back schemes. The main role of the government is to check if these companies reach their goals, and to report the result to the EU.

“When it comes to packaging waste, for many years the government has agreements with many different companies which are producing packaging waste. We (the government) say that you (business companies) are responsible for collecting and treating their packaging waste with environmentally good solutions. The company reports the result from this process to the government, and the government reports it to EU, saying that we (Norway) are meeting their requirements. Norway has the Directives coming from EU. Norway is not a part of EU, but a part of EEA agreement, which means 90% of our regulations are from the EU. But if they (business) do not do their jobs, the government can start to regulate them in different way which makes them much harder. So they want to do good jobs.”

−Informant 8, the Norwegian Environmental Agency The government also controls private waste handling companies, like Ragn-Sells, through the Pollution Control Authority (Forurensningsmyndighetene). The County Governor of Oslo and Akershus (fylkesmannen) is the chief representative of the King and the Government in the county. The Governor is the pollution control authority in Oslo for environment-polluting facilities that process and sort waste, such as

incineration plants, landfill sites, and vehicle scrap yards. This authority grants licenses to these facilities, and this license requires these facilities to implement specific

measures which minimize the negative impacts on the environment. This authority is also responsible for inspecting the facilities, to ensure all conditions are being met.⁴¹

“We are controlled by the Norwegian government, but mostly it is up to us to be better. The government just makes sure we do what we are supposed to.” – Informant 9, Ragn-Sells

41 County Governor of Oslo and Akershus, 2012, ‘Waste and recycling’ https://www.fylkesmannen.no/e-n/Oslo-and-Akershus/Climate-and-the-environment/Waste-and-recycling/ Retrieved March 18, 2016.

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Return companies have relationships with local municipalities. These companies buy waste from the municipalities, which is collected by city authorities from households in the region. Informant 11 from Green Dot Norway describes their relationship with the Municipality of Oslo this way:

“We are good friends with Oslo municipality, I think. We have many discussions about how much money we should pay to the municipality.

They ask for more money when we buy blue bags(for plastic packaging waste) from the municipality.”

– Informant 11, Green Dot Norway This bargaining practice to sell their resources or services occurs to EGE when the agency makes a contract with private waste handling actors. Informant 7 from EGE assumes that the bargaining could be a difficult part when it works with other actors, as stated below, although the informant does not broker these negotiations.

“When we make contracts with private waste handing companies like Franzefoss and Norsk Gjenvinning, we have meetings and negotiations to discuss how the working terms should be, for example, the costs, and how often they come and pick up things. Although I personally do not work on this, and I do not think we have many problems regarding that, but I think it is same as other companies around the contracts. We want to get paid as much as possible, and the companies want to pay as little as possible.”

−Informant 7, EGE REN is cooperating with other actors in recycling, and reusing the items that people bring to recycling stations in Oslo. According to the explanation given by Informant 3 from REN, second-hand organizations such as Fretex have an agreement with REN to take reusable items from REN’s recycling stations for free. Then these organizations repair or redesign the items for resale. More specifically, Informant 21 from Fretex explains that Fretex visits three recycling stations in Oslo, three times a week,

“We have a contract with REN on the three sites in Haraldrud, Smestad, and Grønmo, and we can collect items there. That is actually a good deal because people working there set aside the items that can be used again, and we collect them when we go there. For us, in fact, it is very easy, because people working there sort out the waste, so they make our jobs much easier. It is good for everyone!”

−Informant 21, Fretex

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It is pretty easy to find the large donation containers on the streets Oslo, which collect used clothes, textiles, and shoes (Tøyinnsamling). REN recommends that Oslo residents to throw this types of waste into the containers managed by Fretex and UFF Norway.

REN has contracts with Fretex and UFF that these two organizations can put their containers for free in Oslo.

“We can place our boxes on collection sites next to a box for collecting metal and glass in Oslo, based on our agreement with REN. The collection sites that Fretex and UFF Norway can put the boxes (Tøyinnsamling) are divided equally to Fretex and UFF Norway. We have about 200 boxes in Oslo, I guess. Besides this, we also have our own sites in Oslo, not only with the Municipality of Oslo. Everyone goes out to try to find a new location all the time, because we want more and we know that it is a part of waste reduction. Today, we collect about 3kg per capita in Oslo, but we know that up to 8kg can be reused.”

−Informant 20, Fretex Regarding communicative instruments regarding waste, LOOP works to spread knowledge and to grow public awareness about waste sorting and recycling. This non-profit organization was established in 2000, by the Ministry of Environment at the time.

It cooperates with return companies such as Green Dot Norway, Infinitum, and with municipalities to providing information and educational programs and literature. For example, LOOP makes educational materials that are distributed to students and schools, free of charge, when a return company funds LOOP. It creates educational material focusing on the type of waste that the sponsor company copes with.

Accordingly, Informant 17 from LOOP says that people can tell which companies have financially supported them, judging by the educational materials. It might not be a coincidence that several return companies (Infinitum, Green Dot Norway, Norsk Metallgjenvinning, Norsk Resy) are all board members (styret) at LOOP. LOOP also produces educational materials for students in environmental education programs, held by municipalities.