Towards a zero waste vision: backcasting as a potential method for achieving effective policy formation

Waste management is a complex systemic problem with implications across economic sectors and impacts diverse areas of policy development including resource efficiency/security and energy. The current target driven policy approach; based on implementing European Union (EU) Waste Framework Directive (WFD); is considered restrictive for perceiving waste management options over the long-term. Backcasting is a social sciences methodology recently applied to waste having the potential to present complex problems in a novel manner, allowing radical change to be envisaged. A four phase methodology was developed to apply backcasting as a novel method for waste management in the United Kingdom. Phase one was a visioning workshop; phase two a detailed case study region baseline analysis; phase three development of scenario pathways; while phase four focused on identifying critical points working backwards from 2050. Initial research results are presented; namely the zero waste vision for 2050 and the detailed baseline analysis. Subsequently, the paper discusses these and the iterative process for identifying critical points and scenario pathways.