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Paper short abstract

This presentation examines the multi-faceted ethical dimensions of employers offloading their unwanted household items onto domestic workers in Singapore, and how this may inadvertently contribute to waste colonialism.

Paper long abstract

The export of reusable or recyclable waste to lower-income countries in the name of closing material circularity loops has been increasingly recognised as a form of environmental racism and waste colonialism. What is less visible and more ethically ambiguous is the phenomenon whereby foreign domestic workers send unwanted reusable household items amassed from their employers back to their home countries in Balikbayan boxes. On the one hand, the life-spans of the items in Balikbayan boxes are extended and they serve as a resource to the domestic worker’s family. On the other hand, this offshoring of reusable items do not just support circular transitions, they also displace environmental responsibilities (e.g. reuse, eventual disposal) and risks (e.g. improper disposal) elsewhere. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with migrant domestic workers and their (more affluent) employers in Singapore, this presentation explores the complex ethical dimensions around the offloading circular waste management onto domestic workers across space and time. For instance, there is a tendency for Singaporean employers to perceive themselves as environmentally virtuous while being ethically blind to the possibility that their donation of unwanted items to their workers may be tantamount to waste colonialism. Such an ethical emphasis shifts the evaluation of circular practices beyond technical metrics (e.g. product life extension, material recovery, financial gains) towards the ways in which they redistribute social and environmental burdens unevenly. Overall, the paper advances the scholarship on just circular transitions by highlighting the transnational labour relations and regional inequalities through which circularity is sustained.