Waste minimisation in small and medium-sized enterprises—do environmental management systems help?

The main research question of our study was as follows: What opportunities for upgrading material efficiency and waste minimisation can be found in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? The empirical material consisted of 41 theme interviews in Finnish industrial SMEs. In the article, the SMEs are assigned to four different categories according to their attitudes towards environmental protection. This analysis also explains why SMEs build up environmental management systems (EMSs). The EMSs do not appear to provide much impetus for SMEs to implement waste minimisation. The reduction of wastes in SMEs is driven more by the costs of raw materials than by waste costs. From the standpoint of environmental authorities, it is therefore crucial to find procedures to support SMEs in increasing their efficient use of materials.