Environmental change and the informal plastic recycling networks of Kolkata

Abstract

This article introduces plastic recycling networks in Kolkata, India, as a case to illustrate the contradictory entanglement of economic and environmental change in urban informal contexts of the Global South. In light of the prevailing environmental critique of informal plastic recycling in India, this article discusses plastic recyclers’ environmental impact and contribution as well as the potential to enhance the environmental and economic performance of their business. Network and chain approaches in the emerging field of Environmental Economic Geography are combined with the notion of social metabolism to conceptualize the entanglement of environmental and economic processes as well as socio‐environmental inequalities entailed in recycling networks. The analysis reveals the impact that the heterogeneity and fluctuation of plastic waste supply has on the economic organization of recycling networks, giving rise to distinct forms of governance in its intermediate and down‐stream segments. Such an integrated perspective also serves to explain why environmental upgrading is hard to achieve under prevailing circumstances by plastic recyclers in Kolkata. Based on an assessment of the social and political conditions of informality under which plastic recyclers operate, the adoption of common assumptions about ecological modernization imbuing parts of Environmental Economic Geography is called into question.

A review of the cost and effectiveness of solutions to address plastic pollution

“…Often, they are poor and marginalized urban dwellers, including children, who resort to scavenging and waste picking for survival. Their work is often unrecognized, they are subject to low pay and unsafe work conditions although they play an essential role which supports the livelihoods of millions of people (Schlitz 2020 ). In the informal plastic waste sector, women are further marginalized and can only occupy lower-income tasks, such as waste picking, sweeping and waste separation, whereas men are able to assume positions of higher authority, dealing with the buying and reselling of recyclables for example (Wang et al 2019 ).…”

“…Often, they are poor and marginalized urban dwellers, including children, who resort to scavenging and waste picking for survival. Their work is often unrecognized, they are subject to low pay and unsafe work conditions although they play an essential role which supports the livelihoods of millions of people (Schlitz 2020).…”

Municipal solid waste management with recyclable potential in developing countries: Current scenario and future perspectives

“…The formal and informal sectors of MSWRP recycling are present in the largest cities, with major participation of the informal sector responsible for collecting 95% of the e-waste (Ardi and Leisten, 2016; Aryan at al., 2019; Dutta and Goel, 2021; Ferronato and Torretta, 2019; Kumar et al, 2018; Sandhu et al, 2017; Schlitz, 2020; Singh, 2021).…”

“…In general, the informal sector (group 1) is characterized by small-scale work with low remuneration (below the poverty line) with lack of social security; often composed by individuals or family groups with low educational level, a rudimentary and unhealthy work of dwellers living in peripheries of dumps or immigrants from impoverished rural areas or neighbouring towns (Agarwal et al, 2005; Sandhu et al, 2017; Schlitz, 2020; Singh, 2021).…”

Towards Higher Quality of Recycled Plastics: Limitations from the Material’s Perspective

“…This confirms the trend of discussing plastic recycling in the context of the circular economy. For instance, the topics in 2020 associated with plastic recycling and circular economy mostly discussed the mechanical recycling process and the quality of mechanically recycled plastics [73][74][75][76][77][78], plastic waste flows and the associated environmental challenges [79][80][81], and challenges and solutions to the plastic waste recycling [82][83][84][85][86][87]. In this field, 86 reviewed research combining recycled plastic and additive manufacturing as a path towards a circular economy.…”