Governance, sustainability and deliberation Reflections from a UK case study of sustainable waste management

• Published in: Sustainable Development and Governance in Europe pp. 205 - 219
• Main Author: Bull, Richard
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2013
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: UK Coalition Government; EU Emission Trading Scheme; Central Government; EU Environmental; Environmental Citizenship; EU Energy Policy; Household Waste; Sustainable Waste Management; UN; Waste Strategy; Veolia Environmental Services; EU's Aspiration; Responsive Effects; Current Sustainability Discourse; Energy Policy; Household Waste Management; Multi-actor Process; Public Engagement; UK Devolution; Responsive Relationship; UK Central Government; Waste Crisis; Tonne; EU's Sustainable Development Strategy; EU Environmental Policy
• ISBN: 1138933791; 9780415630078; 041563007X; 9781138933798
• DOI: 10.4324/9780203768730-18

This chapter grounds the current discourse over governance and sustainability by means of a case study that operationalised a partnership approach to governance through deliberative engagement. It applies observations from a specific research context into household waste management and the controversial siting and development of Energy from Waste (EfW) facilities, to the wider sustainability debate. Within the field of sustainable development, climate change has emerged as the dominant discourse (Lovell et al. 2009), yet the challenge of waste - and, in this instance, household waste - is highly relevant. The rise in waste 1 has been, in part, a consequence of increasing consumerism and a throw-away society. The issue of waste brings the thinking on sustainability into sharp focus - that is, the resources of the world are finite, as is space for the disposal of waste.