Circular Economy and Informal Work
|
My circular economy research contributes to the fields of global environmental politics and discard studies by examining the evolving labor circuits (formal and informal), infrastructures, and economic organizations articulating around urban and global “waste-as-commodity” flows of the ascendant circular economy.
As I explain in a chapter for The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics, while most circular economy policies and plans, particularly in Europe, are articulated at the municipal, regional and national scales, waste-value chains are in reality transnational. Goods manufactured in Asia are consumed in Europe and when discarded, often end up back in Asian, African and South American cities, where a large informal economy extracts, processes and revalorizes waste as resource. Any attempt to reduce material footprints by closing loops will have to contend with these already-existing circuits and practices of resource circularity, which is what my research attempts to do. My co-edited volume The Circular Economy and the Global South makes a key contribution to this field by centering practitioner perspectives and articulating the need to center the informal economy in global sustainability and climate governance. In Chapter 5 of my book Recycling Class, I further develop my critique of the "win-win" fallacy of the circular economy. Available open access here. |
Informal Work and Sustainable Cities: From Formalization to Reparation, One Earth, 2020 (open access)
The circularity divide: What is it and how do we avoid it? Resources Conservation and Recycling, 2022 (pre-print)
|
Circular Economy and the Global South (Routledge 2019) is amongst the first books to examine the diversity of resource conservation, reuse and recycling practices carried out by communities in the global South in relation to an emerging global movement advocating a transition to a Circular Economy, led by businesses and policy-makers in the global North.
This volume highlights examples of circular economy practices in developing country contexts in relation to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), informal sector recycling and national policy approaches. It examines a broad range of case studies, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa, and Thailand, and illustrates how the circular economy can be used as a new lens and possible solution to cross-cutting development issues of pollution and waste, employment, health, urbanisation and green industrialisation. In addition to more technical and policy oriented contributions, the book also critically discusses existing narratives and pathways of the circular economy in the global North and South, and how these differ or possibly even conflict with each other. Finally, the book critically examines under what conditions the circular economy will be able to reduce global inequalities and promote human development in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.
This volume highlights examples of circular economy practices in developing country contexts in relation to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), informal sector recycling and national policy approaches. It examines a broad range of case studies, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa, and Thailand, and illustrates how the circular economy can be used as a new lens and possible solution to cross-cutting development issues of pollution and waste, employment, health, urbanisation and green industrialisation. In addition to more technical and policy oriented contributions, the book also critically discusses existing narratives and pathways of the circular economy in the global North and South, and how these differ or possibly even conflict with each other. Finally, the book critically examines under what conditions the circular economy will be able to reduce global inequalities and promote human development in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Global Repairation Fund
Alongside research, I am developing transformative policy proposals to aid in a just and inclusive circular economy transition.
One such proposal is to commission a global repairation fund, an attempt to enact reparations to informal waste workers through the circular economy. In a 2021 opinion piece, I argued that the fund could provide investments and financing for informal economy repair, recycling and remanufacturing initiatives in the global South.
My research and stakeholder engagement with grassroots waste picker groups in India shows that lack of access to credit and commercial finance is one of the biggest barriers preventing informal organizations from participating in value-adding circular economy repair and remanufacturing activities. When informal recyclers and waste pickers lack access to finance to improve operations and equipment, work conditions cannot improve and resource recovery will be marginal. A global repairation fund tries to fix this.
One such proposal is to commission a global repairation fund, an attempt to enact reparations to informal waste workers through the circular economy. In a 2021 opinion piece, I argued that the fund could provide investments and financing for informal economy repair, recycling and remanufacturing initiatives in the global South.
My research and stakeholder engagement with grassroots waste picker groups in India shows that lack of access to credit and commercial finance is one of the biggest barriers preventing informal organizations from participating in value-adding circular economy repair and remanufacturing activities. When informal recyclers and waste pickers lack access to finance to improve operations and equipment, work conditions cannot improve and resource recovery will be marginal. A global repairation fund tries to fix this.
