Abstract
Blockchain technology is emerging as a plausible disruptor of waste management practices that influence the governance of plastics. The interest among the waste management community in the potential and fundamental changes to complex resource management associated with blockchain adoption parallels recent research in other sectors, such as finance, health, public administration, etc. During any comparable period characterized by a step-change in positive coverage of an early-stage technology, it can be challenging for actors to access a grounded, evidence-based oversight of the current state of practice and make informed decisions about whether or how to adopt blockchain technology. The current absence of such a systematic overview of recent experiences with blockchain initiatives disrupting waste practices not only limits the visibility of these experimental efforts, but also limits the learning that can be shared across waste plastics researcher and practitioner communities. This paper contributes with a current overview of blockchain technology adoption in the waste management sector, giving particular attention to implications for the governance of plastics. Our study draws on both primary interview data and secondary documentation data to map the landscape of current blockchain initiatives in the global waste sector. We identify four areas of blockchain use that are beginning to change waste management practices (payment, recycling and reuse rewards, monitoring and tracking of waste, and smart contracts). We conclude by outlining five areas of significant blockchain uses, implications, and influences of relevance to the development of circular plastic waste governance in both research and practice.
Highlights
The research question framing this paper is: how can blockchain technology support the governance of circular plastic waste management? For this purpose, a three-step process was adopted: (1) a scoping review identified reported blockchain technology-based initiatives within the waste management sector; (2) semi-structured interview data were used to triangulate and validate scoping review data about the initiatives, as well as provide anecdotal contextualizing evidence; and (3) categorization through qualitative coding of initiatives according to their attributes was used to explore and identify implications for plastic waste management and governance discussions
They take a structured approach to mapping concepts, sources, and latter inclusion criterion not limited to plastics, (1) Levac the scoping exercise typesThe of evidence available within was a research area (Mays et al as 2001; et al 2010; identified very few plastic waste projects, and (2) wider lessons learnt from other waste management projects are believed by authors to be useful to plastic waste management
Governance of plastic waste involves a variety of activities, legislature, cooperation mechanisms, and other policy instruments (Vince and Hardesty 2018)
Summary
Budding technological advancements and innovations are continually explored as instruments for supporting more effective and efficient management of resources and waste. Blockchain technology facilitates smart contracts, which can automate transactions and their recordings, without the need for intermediaries It is these characteristics that have resulted in extant academic literature highlighting the benefits of blockchain technology for resource and waste management. These benefits have been described generally (Chapron 2017; Ongena et al 2018; Saberi et al 2018; Steenmans and Taylor 2018; Taylor et al 2020) as well as in more targeted application contexts, such as circular economy transitions (Kouhizadeh et al 2019; Vogel et al 2019; Shojaei et al 2021). It aims to increase visibility of the range of ongoing blockchain experiences within the waste and plastics sectors, as well as identify areas that would benefit from further research and development.
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