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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the intersection between agricultural and industrial processes that are represented as circular and cyclical, bringing a political ecology lens to two environmental problems – intensive agriculture and plastics – that are often kept separate but are in fact deeply interconnected.

Paper long abstract:

In Trinidad, Flores, which lies some 200km in-land from Uruguay’s capital of Montevideo, a sparse ‘eco-parque’ consisting of a few industrial units sitting alongside the landfill of this provincial capital, has long been celebrated as an example of circular economy and responsible waste management. Integral to this reputation is a small plant for recycling rural plastics, which is run by a cooperative that provides supplies, seeds, and services to Uruguay’s arable and livestock farmers. The cooperative supplies agro-chemical products (herbicides, pesticides, fertilisers) to farmers, then recovers the empty High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) containers, shredding, washing, and pelletizing these to be sold on to another plastics producer in Montevideo. As such, the cooperative was lauded for “closing the circle” of agricultural consumption and disposal. However, the use of such plastic encased petro-chemicals is also embedded in and shapes the increasingly intensive and short growing cycles of Uruguayan agriculture, which has turned to cash-crops like sorghum and soya, causing documented damage to the soil and health impacts on rural residents. This paper explores the intersection between these agricultural and industrial processes that are represented as circular and cyclical, bringing a political ecology lens to two environmental problems – intensive agriculture and plastics – that are often kept separate but are in fact deeply interconnected. Rather than simply dismissing both of these as bad, however, it uses ethnography with local plastics and agricultural workers to track the shifting local moral economy around economic growth, crop growth, and waste management.

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Paper short abstract:

Workers at the e-waste company salvage items that never made it to the market, among other things. Their activities strengthen social ties. This paper looks at how dealing with e-waste from proximity promotes workers’ moral responsibility in contrast to the immorality of capitalist market logic.

Paper long abstract:

Electronics manufacturers do not hesitate to discard products that never reached the market. This solution is more acceptable than underselling these products. Workers at the e-waste (electrical and electronic waste) processing company then must deal with the new and never-used products that should have had their lives taken away. Often, they steal them, although it is forbidden. The decision emerges from a reluctance to destroy something functional that required the work and energy of other people to be produced. In the environment of the e-waste processing company, things are salvaged, and a space for social interaction is created. Through the actions of workers, these objects find appreciation. In the practices of gift-giving, sharing, and collective use, the things are given back their social purpose. Furthermore, social ties benefit from the value of objects, and vice versa; the value of objects comes from social ties. Workers do not tolerate the destruction of value and use the objects to strengthen the value of the object and the social value of their relations. Their actions represent one kind of response towards the moral absurdity of wasting. Drawing upon ethnographic research at an e-waste processing company, I explore the extension of value transformation and the moral and ethical negotiations that accompany it. The stealing of the company’s property highlights the irresponsibility of capitalist market logic. Stealing thus proves to be a moral action in this context.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores a group of Copenhagen-based builders who act as creative scavengers in modern construction. It shows how these builders turn discarded materials into novel building structures and how they, through this work, contribute to redefining architectural aesthetics.

Paper long abstract:

The construction industry accounts for an estimated third of all waste generated around the globe annually. Yet, the materials made and discarded in today’s construction work contain a treasure trove of materials that could be used beneficially. This paper explores the work required to turn discarded construction materials into novel building structures. It draws on a year of fieldwork conducted among a group of builders working in a craft co-op in Copenhagen, Denmark. These builders act as a form of creative scavengers in modern construction as they have specialized in crafting novel building structures from discarded materials. In the paper, I unfold the scavenging performed by the builders through a description of one specific building project in which the builders were tasked with crafting several small orangeries. I show how the builders simultaneously craft a novel architectural aesthetic as they work on turning discarded materials into novel building structures. I further highlight that key actors in the construction industry are currently taking advantage of this aesthetic. This became evident in the abovementioned project as the final destination of the orangeries turned out to be a conventional concrete building. Studying the reuse of discarded materials in the construction industry thus also, I argue, sheds light on the contradictions and irony that global capitalism has brought to the industry.

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Paper short abstract:

This research sheds light on the dynamics of material management in the demolition industry of Lombardy, Italy, emphasizing context-related issues and preferences in decision-making regarding sustainable practices.

Paper long abstract:

Materials used in the construction industry pose environmental challenges, making a significant contribution to the planet's waste. They represent both a value and a cost for demolition companies, influencing their budgetary decisions for a project based on such assessments. Knowledge, especially expert knowledge, is utilized to assess and decide how to manage specific materials, distinguishing between what qualifies as valuable waste, non-valuable waste, and what can be reused in its original state, thereby not classified as waste. However, the determination of value is frequently highly contextual and is often influenced by the historical prevalence of recycling practices, constituting a substantial industry.

In this paper, I investigate practices of reuse and recycling within the construction industry in Lombardy, Northern Italy. Employing participant observation at demolition sites, I investigate contemporary demolition practices in Italy. Specifically, my focus lies on the trajectory of materials and an examination of the industry's modus operandi concerning the disposal of materials. While recycling seems to be the most common and established practice in the field, reuse remains on the periphery, used occasionally, especially when mandated by legislation for historic conservation. While it is sometimes actively pursued, various challenges are associated with it. Uncertainties arise from everyday practices of reuse when issues such as cost, time, logistics, and adherence to energy or security standards are faced. Although reuse may appear to be the most sustainable option, it is not always the case. Consequentially, decisions regarding reuse are context-dependent and frequently subject to changes.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the function of waste within contemporary processes of capitalist accumulation through considering the intersection of ecological waste and surplus population. Rather than being expendable, waste created by capital is productive of new modes of capitalist accumulation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is interested in the function of waste within contemporary processes of capitalist accumulation. From fast-fashion landfills to ocean islands of plastics, ecological waste is an inevitable product of capitalism. Some theories have posited surplus populations as equally inevitable human waste, expelled from a system that has no use for them. This paper draws on anthropological work on waste to outline the dialectical process through which waste is created by and integrated into circuits of capital. In doing so, it poses questions for conceptions of surplus populations as human waste, and of waste as unproductive or expendable.

It explores this through the intersection of ecological waste and surplus population against a backdrop of climate crisis. Through considering sites where ecological waste intersects with the carceral management of migrants – Rohingya warehousing in Bangladesh and Australia’s offshore detention on Nauru - it examines ways in which waste is being reconfigured as a productive component of capital within geographies of migrant management and detention. As capital finds ways to make devaluation a source of economic value, this is being folded into the circulation of capital as simultaneously a response to climate crisis and part of extractive economies of migration management. In this way, ecological and human waste created by capital are mutually valorised by capital.

By rooting the treatment of waste within processes of capitalist accumulation, this paper seeks to show how, far from being left-behind detritus, the creation and management of waste is productive of new modes of capitalist accumulation.

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Paper short abstract:

Based on more than a year of ethnographic fieldwork among people living of waste in Havana, Cuba, this intervention will show how creativity – individual and societal – emerges from waste, letting ways of inventar – what I call wastecrafts – flourish.

Paper long abstract:

In Havana, nothing seems to be recycled at a first glance. Conspicuous amasses of waste accumulate outside the dustbins, waiting days, sometimes weeks, to be collected and brought to the landfill. There is no separation of discards in the households: waste is simply collected by waste-trucks and brought to the city landfill, a hill of waste that have grown higher and higher through the years. It is not rare to see a person throwing out something directly on the ground, without caring to find a dustbin.

Nevertheless, the state of things is pretty the opposite of what it might seem at a first, superficial look. Waste is recycled, mainly informally, and it gives shape to an organized and complex system - an economy of waste – with an unbelievable number of social actors participating to it. It is a sort of chain, that starts with the people collecting and separating recyclables and ends with those selling products that have been in some way processed from waste. The variety of things obtained from waste is astonishing, and it reveals a great inventiveness that characterizes many Cubans. This creativity, this capacity of inventing or repairing things with alternative materials, is not only to be seen in association to determinate, creative individuals, but it is to be considered also at the macrolevel of the society in its whole. Indeed, this well-functioning economic system based on waste is a response to an ongoing, decades-long situation of material scarcity, given by Cuba’s peculiar socio-political situation.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper uses ethnographic field research with smartphone repairers in Dar es Salaam to explore the ways that repair can mediate value as a restorative practice, express value as a practice of care, and provide perspectives to the ethical values that inform the designs of objects like smartphones.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is about how practices of repair relate to processes of de/revalorization as they pertain to a particularly salient object: the smartphone.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork with independent smartphone repairers working in the busy market streets of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the paper explores the ways in which value(s) are mediated by interventions of repair, accounting for the social actors who undertake this repair/value mediation, as well as the skilled labor and technical competence that it entails.

It understands repair as a practice whose own value exceeds simply restoring (that of other) things, or delaying their delegation to the dump, but also a way of relating to and caring for the things and people that populate our worlds—an expression of valorization, as well as a process by which things may be revalorized. Just as neglect (lack of repair) can be understood as an expression of not caring (valuing), attempting to repair an object (restoring its use-value) can be an expression of care and value.

Furthermore, the paper suggests that knowing objects through their repair or maintenance (and their repairers and maintainers) offers valuable perspectives into the values that inform the objects’ designs. Smartphones have in the 20-odd years since their inception become one of the planet’s most popular and populous consumer objects. When repairers encounter these objects, they also encounter designs that are shaped by values related for instance to consumption, modernity, waste and sustainability—smartphones' intended lifespan (and afterlife as waste), or the ease of its repair or maintenance.

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Paper short abstract:

Exploring object (de)valuation, this paper examines how value is subjectively assigned by owners/users, influenced by various factors, and varies within households. A case study of a family house, occupied for over 70 years and now being vacated, highlights the dynamic nature of these valuations.

Paper long abstract:

Within the framework of sustainability studies, there has been a great interest in understanding the life cycles of objects and the processes of valorization and devalorization that they may go through. This perspective often correlates with changes in the objects' materiality and their ability to perform intended functions. Valorization is usually linked with maintenance, repair, and upcycling, whereas devaluation is associated with deterioration, breakage, and loss of functionality.

However, from a practical standpoint, the value of objects does not depend on their condition or functionality. Instead, it is primarily an attribute ascribed by their owners, influenced by various factors, which may or may not include the object's condition. The perceived value of an object can vary significantly within a household, making it simultaneously invaluable and waste, depending on who is asked. Value usually varies from person to person and therefore Douglas' expression "matter out of place" to refer to waste always depends on what each person understands by "place". The complexity of this issue is heightened when considering the dynamic nature of these valuations.

This paper explores these (de)valuation processes through the case study of an old house, occupied by the same family for over 70 years, now being vacated after the matriarch's death. The study examines the numerous modifications during her final illness and the subsequent dismantling by her descendants. This scenario provides a unique opportunity to examine how the value of objects is collectively negotiated, constructed, and deconstructed, and the implications of these processes on the objects' fate.

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Paper short abstract:

In Lorentzville, South Africa, the circular economy challenges waste norms. Facing overpopulation and unemployment, initiatives like People's Pantry and Love Our City Klean redefine waste. Through education and community engagement, residents transform waste into sustenance.

Paper long abstract:

The concept of the circular economy is gaining relevance, challenging conventional waste disposal norms. Mary Douglas' influential 1966 work framed waste as a matter out of place, often stigmatized as pollution in certain social constructs. This paper delves into evolving perceptions of waste and associated social stigmas, with a focus on Lorentzville, a densely populated suburb in South Africa.

Lorentzville grapples with complex challenges such as overpopulation, undocumented immigrants, high rates of unemployment, and congested shacks. This study explores the community's innovative efforts to redefine waste through the initiatives of non-profit organizations like the People's Pantry (TPP) and Love Our City Klean (LOCK).

TPP engages community members in educational programs aimed at altering perceptions of waste. Using indigenous methods, residents are taught to preserve and repurpose food items, employing techniques like drying and using rotten food as fertilizer. Collaborating with TPP, LOCK focuses on raising awareness about cleanliness and waste management. In response to neglect by waste pickers and the municipality in the area, LOCK mobilizes community members to clean the streets. Moreover, they educate individuals about recyclable materials and establish a system where residents exchange recyclables for points redeemable for food items from TPP.

Findings reveal a transformative shift in mindset among community members, viewing recycling not only as a means to keep the city clean but also as a source of sustenance. This case study provides valuable insights into the potential of circular economy initiatives to address the intricate social and environmental challenges prevalent in marginalized urban communities.

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Paper short abstract:

From the ethnographic exploration of the daily routine of a voluntary association, this paper analyzes Italy’s delicate phase of transition towards a circular economy, showing how the underlying narrative that fuels policies hybridizes with core values and ideas of local circularity practices.

Paper long abstract:

In the last ten years, the circular economy (CE) has gained authority to the point of being considered one of the pillars of the EU’s Green Deal. Despite the consensus on the unsustainability of our current system, CE is still a strongly contested concept (Korhonen et al., 2018). Caught between the proliferation of alternative definitions and the strive toward a single paradigm, CE is an important battleground for the future shape of our economy (O’Hare and Rams, 2024). This theoretical friction is evident in Italy, where the implementation of CE policies clashes with the microcosm of the often unrecognized “actually existing” circularity practices (O’Hare, 2021). Labelled as one of the most circular countries in the EU (CEN, 2023), Italy embodies these contradictions by discovering its landscape of circular initiatives while narrowing them in favor of a recycling-focused paradigm. These efforts risk generating processes of marginalization, pushing the initiatives that fail to be labelled as circular metaphorically at the edges of the circle. This paper deepens this dialogic dimension from the perspective of a local reality entangled in this process: the voluntary association Re.So. Based in the city of Empoli (Tuscany) and composed only of retirees, Re.So collects products with defective packaging, food near the expiring date or broken appliances to repair from large-scale distribution to give them to families in need. Rooted in cooperativism’s history of solidarity, volunteers are crafting their own CE, posing compelling questions on citizens’ participation in realizing a circular future.