How Sweden Turned Sewage Sludge Into Fertilizer—and the Politics Behind It
A new study reveals how Swedish policymakers and industry players negotiated the transformation of sewage sludge from waste into an agricultural resource, boosting usage from 6% to 46% in two decades. The research shows that turning waste into profitable products isn't just a technical problem—it's fundamentally a political one, with competing interests shaping what counts as safe and useable.
Originaltitel: Between Waste and Resource: Enacting Sewage Sludge as Useable Good
<p>In many countries, policymakers, researchers and other stakeholders have advocated that using materials previously regarded as waste as an important step towards a more sustainable future. The issue, however, is that using waste is not easy in practice. Concerns regarding safety, cleanliness, profitability, and quality are frequently raised. My focus is on Swedish sewage sludge use in agriculture, a practice which went from six percent of the total amount sewage sludge produced to 46 percent between 2002 and 2020. The main guiding question is how actors like researchers, farmer federations, industrial organizations, wastewater treatment plant operators, and public agency representatives negotiate what sewage sludge is and how it should be used. The study contributes to the emerging literature on resourcification, a theoretical approach which understands that resources become through practice. I also draw on concepts from multiple ontology research to demonstrate how complex materials like sewage sludge become a matter of political contestation. </p><p>The study is based on researchers’ arguments published in scientific papers over the past fifty years, Swedish stakeholders’ opinion statements to four governmental inquiries over the past twenty years, minutes from a wastewater treatment certification organization (Revaq) from 2011 to 2022, and interviews with the expert panel initiated by the 2018 governmental sewage sludge inquiry. Analytically, I focus on how sewage sludge is related to other objects and phenomena and by that enacting what the sludge should be. I argue that farmers, wastewater treatment plant operators, researchers, and recycling companies have enacted sewage sludge as a fertilizer, partially through the establishment of a certificate. In the Swedish agricultural sector, sewage sludge has now become a usable good. This enactment, however, requires constant support to fend off the challenges presented by other ways of enacting what sewage sludge is and should become. </p>