Waste collection and recycling increasingly appears on the socioeconomic and political agenda both in the Global South and North. In the case of waste pickers, Latin America has a long-standing past of dealing with informal and marginalised activities, slowly making their way towards formalisation. In this paper we make two arguments. First, on a conceptual level, we highlight the implication of the semantics and synonyms of waste, which are then reflected in the ambivalence and de-dichotomised way of understanding de_marginalisation and the in_formal. Second, we empirically compare cases from Argentina and Brazil with Germany to highlight the pitfalls of Eurocentric perspectives on in_formal waste management.
Article (digital)
Introduction
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Introduction
Nowadays, ‘e-waste’, or discarded electrical and electronic equipment (DEEE), is synonymous with environmental degradation and global injustice. In China, the central government has come up with a series of regulations and policies in recent years to deal with the challenge posed by both foreign and domestic DEEE. It justified this programme by invoking the necessity to protect China’s environment. This article shows how Beijing’s efforts to ‘formalise’ DEEE collection and recycling concentrate activities in the hands of a limited number of large companies, and cause the exclusion of a myriad of actors and entities, in particular self-made entrepreneurs with roots in the Chinese countryside.
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e-waste, recycling, informal sector, exclusion, China
Informal recycling networks in the Global South have stimulated debates about political economies of recycling in post-colonial contexts. This article retrieves the underrated Marxian notion of use-value to explore how used plastic materials are revalued in the plastic recycling networks of Kolkata, India. Focusing on the role of scrap shops within recycling networks, the relation between informal and formal economic spaces is discussed with reference to Sanyal’s (2007) distinction between needs-based and accumulation economies. It is argued that scrap shops perform the crucial role of translating concrete use-value of wasted plastics into new potential social use-value. Thereby, the analysis contributes to understanding the transformation of value between informal and formal economic space in post-colonial political economy of recycling in India.
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List of Interviews
Int2: small-size scrap shop; interview conducted in Old Kolkata on Nov. 19, 2016.
Int5: middle-size scrap shop; interview conducted in Old Kolkata on Nov. 25, 2016.
Int6: middle-size scrap shop; interview conducted in North Kolkata on Dec. 3, 2016.
Int7: small-size scrap shop; interview conducted in East Kolkata on Dec. 4, 2016.
Int8: small-size scrap shop; interview conducted in East Kolkata on Dec. 4, 2016.
Int9: middle-size scrap shop; interview conducted in East Kolkata on Dec. 4, 2016.
Int13: middle-size scrap shop; interview conducted in Old Kolkata on Dec. 10, 2016.
Int14: small-size scrap shop; interview conducted in Old Kolkata on Dec. 10, 2016.
Int17: big-size scrap shop; conducted in East Kolkata on Dec. 15, 2016.
Int22: middle-size scrap shop; interview conducted in East Kolkata on Jan. 19, 2017.
Int25: middle-size scrap shop; interview conducted in East Kolkata on Jan. 24, 2017.
Int26: big-size scrap shop; conducted in East Kolkata on Jan. 24, 2017.
Int30: small-size scrap shop; conducted in South Kolkata on Jan. 26, 2017. Int31: Kolkata Municipal Corporation; interview conducted on Jan. 30, 2017.
Int34: NGO representative; interview conducted in East Kolkata on Feb. 6, 2017.
Int37: Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology; interview in Haldia on Feb. 8, 2017.
Int42: plastic manufacturer; interview conducted in Old Kolkata on Feb. 14, 2017.
Int43: West Bengal Pollution Control Board; interview conducted on Feb. 17, 2017. WasteWalk3: WasteWalk conducted in Old Kolkata on Nov. 2, 2016
manual scavenging, caste-based discrimination, technological solutions, rehabilitation schemes, graded hierarchy of caste
Despite laws prohibiting the occupation of manual scavenging, it is widely prevalent in India. While it is recognised as a hazardous and undignified occupation that involves the manual handling of excreta, it is also recognised as a form of caste-based discrimination that is performed by the lowest Dalit castes in India. In Ahmedabad, manual scavenging and sanitation work is performed by the Bhangis who lack access to alternative occupations and bear the brunt of untouchability. While sanitation workers, activists, NGOs and trade unions attempt to uncover the prevalence of manual scavenging in Ahmedabad, government bodies continue to deny the existence of manual scavenging and caste based discrimination as such. In this paper, I look at the ways in which the occupation of manual scavenging is articulated, contested and negotiated by the aforementioned actors in Ahmedabad.
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manual scavenging, caste-based discrimination, technological solutions, rehabilitation schemes, graded hierarchy of caste
Waste collection and recycling increasingly appears on the socioeconomic and political agenda both in the Global South and North. In the case of waste pickers, Latin America has a long-standing past of dealing with informal and marginalised activities, slowly making their way towards formalisation. In this paper we make two arguments. First, on a conceptual level, we highlight the implication of the semantics and synonyms of waste, which are then reflected in the ambivalence and de-dichotomised way of understanding de_marginalisation and the in_formal. Second, we empirically compare cases from Argentina and Brazil with Germany to highlight the pitfalls of Eurocentric perspectives on in_formal waste management.
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waste, informality, marginalisation, Global North/South
Plastics are in our oceans, creating garbage islands, contaminating seawater, and are a serious threat to the world’s environment. Therefore, plastic and its debris are highly visible in scientific and societal discourses and common knowledge. Looking from a different perspective of waste and its debris, especially in its relation to question of what is (from) human and what not, we may, from a phenomenological perspective, examine different angles of the visibility and non-visibility of plastic. The unwanted, or the dirt, which is called a ‘matter out of place’, according to Mary Douglas, is omnipresent. But if dirt is out of place for one person, couldn’t it conversely then be in place for someone else? The following photo-essay aims to answer this question while focusing on the visibility and invisibility of material waste in its environment. Concretely, it allows an insight into the ecology of waste.
Barad, Karen (2007): Meeting the Universe Halfway. Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham: Duke Univ. Press. https://doi. org/10.1215/9780822388128
Discard Studies (2019): Social studies of waste, pollution & externalities. https:// discardstudies.com/what-is-discard-studies/, 03.01.2019.
Douglas, Mary (2001 [1966]): Purity and Danger. An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge.
Gigault, Julien / Halle, Alexandra Ter / Baudrimont, Magalie / Pascal, PierreYves / Gauffre, Fabienne / Phi, Thuy-Linh / El Hadri, Hind / Grassl, Bruno / Reynaud, Stéphanie (2018): Current opinion: What is a nanoplastic? In: Environmental Pollution 235, 1030–1034. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.01.024
Hawkins, Gay (2006): The Ethics of Waste. How We Relate to Rubbish. Lanham u. a.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc. Jambeck, Jenna R. / Geyer, Roland / Wilcox, Chris / Siegler, Theodore R. / Perryman, Miriam / Andrady, Anthony / Narayan, Ramani / Law, Kara Lavender (2015): Marine pollution. Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. In: Science 347/6223, 768-771. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1260352
Reid, Alex / Haissoune, Amick / Ferber, Paul (2017): Koh Seh Environmental Assessment. Marine Survey Report. https://www. marineconservationcambodia.org/blogs-news-and-history/mcc-newsupdates/150-2017-marine-survey-reports-koh-seh-man-prang-and-angkrong, 03.01.2019.
Photo-Essay
The interview with Max Liboiron, managing editor of Discard Studies and director of the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR), deals with the establishment of the blog Discard Studies, the principles and practices of the feminist, anti-colonial research lab CLEAR (Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research), and a critical perspective on waste and plastic pollution. Liboiron is a feminist environmental scientist, based at Memorial University, who works with innovative methods and considers herself an activist. Our conversation functions as an alternative introduction to matters of waste and globalised inequalities.
Interview
“Reassembling Rubbish: Worlding Electronic Waste” (2018, MIT Press) is the new book of Canadian geographer Josh Lepawsky. It comes with a plea for a new kind of politics, and it tackles fundamental ethical questions, most importantly: what is the right thing to do with e-waste? The discussion about e-waste in Europe is still in its infancy, especially when we compare it to the numerous books and articles that discuss the information economy via themes such as Big Data or automation. This is a pity, because Lepawsky shows us that we can learn more about these very things through the lens of discarded electronics. After all, a lot is at stake: reducing the overall amount of toxic waste, while also tackling inequalities that are inscribed in the global recycling industries of e-waste.
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Gille, Zsuzsa (2007): From the Cult of Waste to the Trash Heap of History: The Politics of Waste in Socialist and Postsocialist Hungary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
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Lepawsky, Josh (2014): The Changing Geography of Global Trade in Electronic Discards: Time to Rethink the e-Waste Problem. In: The Geographical Journal 181 (2), 147–159. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12077
Lepawsky, Josh (2018): Reassembling Rubbish: Worlding Electronic Waste. Cambridge: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11111.001.0001
Lepawsky, Josh/Mcnabb, Chris (2010): Mapping International Flows of Electronic Waste. In: The Canadian Geographer 54 (2), 177–195. https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1541-0064.2009.00279.x
Liboiron, Max (2018): The What and the Why of Discard Studies. In: Discard Studies. September 1, 2018. https://discardstudies.com/2018/09/01/the-whatand-the-why-of-discard-studies/, 28.02.2019.
MacBride, Samantha (2011): Recycling Reconsidered: The Present Failure and Future Promise of Environmental Action in the United States. Cambridge: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/8829.001.0001
Minter, Adam (2013): Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade. London et al.: Bloomsbury Press.
Oteng-Ababio, Martin/van der Velden, Maja (2019): “Welcome to Sodom” – Six Myths about Electronic Waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana. SMART. January 16, 2019. https://www.smart.uio.no/blog/welcome-to-sodom.html, 29.02.2019.
Sormani, Philippe/Bovet, Alain/Strebel, Ignaz (eds., 2019): Repair Work Ethnographies: Revisiting Breakdown, Relocating Materiality. Singapore: Springer Singapore.
Review-Essay