ABSTRACT
Similar to many other sources of raw material, however, the outdated electronic waste undergoes a number of transformations before being turned into such an asset. A few of the necessary transformations (Corvellec et al. 2013b) are listed here: unsustainable waste infrastructures (Corvellec et al. 2013c) have to be unlocked; the fragmentation of responsibilities across international, national, and regional levels, or public and private actors, has to be overcome (Davoudi 2009); new appropriate political instruments have to be developed and resources have to be allocated (UNEP 2010); new knowledge systems, capacities, and organizational structures (Nilsson et al. 2009) have to be put in place; technological innovations meant to recover various fractions from each other have to be developed; and legal reforms connecting waste streams with the markets while guaranteeing both the protection of the environment and public health should be established. Taken together, these different aspects of waste systems create what can be called an institutionalized setting, in which issues are closely intertwined with each other, taken for granted, and followed by a social and cognitive understanding of the system per se (Greenwood et al. 2008). In order to implement changes to the waste system, focusing on better recovery, reuse, or other processes, the legal issues form one part of many which have to be changed in order to rebuild the system into new sustainable solutions. As the title indicates, laws and regulations are part of the institutional arrangements of waste management; in order to understand these, the arrangement has to be explored.
