Paper short abstract:

This paper presents the strategies of incumbent single-use and takeaway industry that target areas of scientific evidence production for policymaking. It explores the revision process of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation from a power perspective.

Paper long abstract:

Transitions to the circular economy in Europe have not gained acceleration despite two action plans and being a priority of the Green Deal. One major reason behind the slow uptake is the active resistance by incumbent actors. This article explores the case of Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation to uncover resistance and capture strategies of incumbent single-use and takeaway industry actors that succeeded in reducing the political ambition of the policy. Building on lobbying databases, and document and media analysis, the article zooms in on a particular set of strategies in which these actors used the legitimacy of science to maintain their influence. It shows how they created doubts about the evidence base and produced their own scientific messaging to feed into the proposed policy; presents the ways they legitimised their role as scientific stakeholders to dominate institutional settings; and examines the approach they took to align their interests with the expectations of the policymakers. It analyses these strategies from a power perspective not only to report on the impact on the policy outcome but also to engage with a discussion on the political, discursive, and institutional mechanisms that reinforce deep-rooted patterns of incumbency.