Waste pickers in Global South: Informal recycling sector in a circular economy era

摘要

Informal sector activities are prevalent across the Global South 3 (less financially 'developed' parts of the world). Waste pickers are part the informal sector and often officially referred to as the 'informal recycling sector' (IRS), or termed in the US 'scavengers' and 'catadores'/ 'cartoneros' in South America. Their informality could be viewed as an expression of the wider social organization system prevailing in their countries, as well as of the governance structures and financial activity mode of the waste management sector in the Global South. Here, I aspire to revisit some of the key findings and questions surrounding the activities of the waste pickers 'in lower- and middle-income countries, and frame them within the rapidly emerging landscape of a circular economy. Namely, an 4 economy that preserves material resources and ensures retention/ recovery of the embedded value in waste objects, items and materials. Interestingly, whereas the circular economy has emerged and rapidly expanded as a dominant narrative and political imperative in Europe, in the Global South (and indeed in all societies experiencing equivalent local resource scarcity) the drive for resource recovery continues to be the instantaneous and not mandated by ideology but by social and market necessities.