The Other Container Revolution: How Materials and Businesses Influenced Environmental Politics and Thus the Recycling of Beverage Containers

This paper adds a new materiality perspective to the literature on environmental politics focusing on the role of business, thus synthesizing two scholarly conversations. It presents a historical case study of the struggle over a Danish ban on metal cans for beverages discussed since 1970. The focal point is ‘The Can War’, a conflict between Denmark and the EEC/EU from 1980 to 2002 over free trade contra environmental protection. It involved among others Danish brewers with different and changing interests, foreign brewers claiming the ban to be an illegal trade barrier, packaging industry, and retailers managing container returns. By its dual examination of business motivations and materiality, the paper traces a complex set of business reactions to environmentalism and show the importance of materials and infrastructures. Thus, the case demonstrates the complexities of environmental politics and the many actors – humans and non-humans – that influence environmental politics and thus wasting practices.