ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the valorisation of urban organic waste from the perspective of mission-oriented innovation. Based on a case study of urban waste governance in the municipality of Oslo, the chapter reflects on how governance of urban waste systems can be understood as a balancing act between problem solving and problem setting. The political mission given – to develop circular systems for recycling of waste – has led to massive public investments in infrastructure and value chains consisting of an optical sorting plant, a biogas facility and an incineration plant. This constitutes a system that relies upon steady flows of organic waste, with little incentive to reduce or prevent waste from being generated in the first place. The chapter discusses how the current recycling mission has contributed to the observed lock-in of a public recycling regime, and where impulses towards more sustainable waste prevention come from the civic and private sectors. To avoid long-term lock-ins and enable leaps upwards in the waste hierarchy, the municipality could benefit from including a more diverse set of actors such as the private sector, social movements and lobby groups into the identification and (re-)articulation of the mission to be achieved in waste treatment.
