What sewage sludge is and conflicts in Swedish circular economy policymaking

IF 2.4 Q3 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Environmental Sociology Pub Date : 2022-01-05 DOI:10.1080/23251042.2021.2021603

Linus Ekman Burgman

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引用次数: 4

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recycling nutrients from renewable sources, like sewage sludge, has been promoted as a step towards a circular economy by decreasing extraction and dependency on inorganic fertilizers. Implementation, however, is often controversial. In 2018, a Swedish governmental inquiry was commissioned to propose a complete ban on land application of sewage sludge to reduce soil pollution and increase phosphorus recovery. In 2020, the inquiry suggested two pathways, one to ban all land application, and one where agricultural land use should continuously be allowed. This paper is based on interviews with experts tied to the inquiry where they reference to sewage sludge, related objects, and future management. The inquiry’s inability to propose a coherent suggestion is analysed inspired by the concept of multiple ontology. Several ontological versions of sewage sludge emerge that unveil tensions between concepts of danger and cleanliness, pollution and naturalness, often captured in previous studies of waste. Some versions of sewage sludge conflict, which can explain the difficulty to establish an ontologically singular knowledge base for a transformation of sewage sludge from waste to resource. Though most of the experts agree that circular economy and nutrient recycling are good things, policymaking is caught in an ontological conundrum.

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什么是污水污泥以及瑞典循环经济决策中的冲突

摘要通过减少对无机肥料的提取和依赖，从污水污泥等可再生资源中回收营养物质已被视为迈向循环经济的一步。然而，执行工作往往存在争议。2018年，瑞典政府委托进行了一项调查，建议全面禁止污泥的土地利用，以减少土壤污染并提高磷的回收率。2020年，调查提出了两条途径，一条是禁止所有土地申请，另一条是应继续允许农业用地。本文基于对与调查相关的专家的采访，他们提到了污水污泥、相关对象和未来管理。受多元本体概念的启发，分析了调查无法提出连贯建议的问题。污水污泥的几个本体论版本出现了，揭示了危险与清洁、污染与自然之间的紧张关系，这在以前的废物研究中经常被捕捉到。污水污泥的某些版本存在冲突，这可以解释为将污水污泥从废物转化为资源建立本体论单一知识库的困难。尽管大多数专家都认为循环经济和营养回收是好事，但政策制定却陷入了一个本体论难题。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Environmental Sociology ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES-

CiteScore

4.60

自引率

12.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Environmental Sociology is dedicated to applying and advancing the sociological imagination in relation to a wide variety of environmental challenges, controversies and issues, at every level from the global to local, from ‘world culture’ to diverse local perspectives. As an international, peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Environmental Sociology aims to stretch the conceptual and theoretical boundaries of both environmental and mainstream sociology, to highlight the relevance of sociological research for environmental policy and management, to disseminate the results of sociological research, and to engage in productive dialogue and debate with other disciplines in the social, natural and ecological sciences. Contributions may utilize a variety of theoretical orientations including, but not restricted to: critical theory, cultural sociology, ecofeminism, ecological modernization, environmental justice, organizational sociology, political ecology, political economy, post-colonial studies, risk theory, social psychology, science and technology studies, globalization, world-systems analysis, and so on. Cross- and transdisciplinary contributions are welcome where they demonstrate a novel attempt to understand social-ecological relationships in a manner that engages with the core concerns of sociology in social relationships, institutions, practices and processes. All methodological approaches in the environmental social sciences – qualitative, quantitative, integrative, spatial, policy analysis, etc. – are welcomed. Environmental Sociology welcomes high-quality submissions from scholars around the world.