Expansion of the Waste-Based Commodity Frontier: Insights from Sweden and Brazil

Abstract

Waste is a valuable commodity and remains a livelihood source for waste pickers in the global South. Waste to Energy (WtoE) is often described as alternative to landfilling, as it provides cheap fuel while making waste disappear. In some European cities, this method has evolved into an impediment, slowing down the adoption of more sustainable technologies and waste prevention. These plants typically strain municipal budgets and provide fewer jobs than recycling and composting, thereby inhibiting the development of small-scale local recycling businesses. We applied the idea of ‘waste regime’ with an interdisciplinary and situated lens to provide insights to the following questions: How do different political developments in Brazil and Sweden, frame and reframe waste incineration and energy recovery, in the context of sustainability and waste management on local, regional and national levels? What forms of resistance against WtoE exist and what are the arguments of these protagonists? We evaluated the impact of WtoE and compare it with other waste management options with regard to CO2 balances and general environmental and social impacts. We conclude by suggesting more socially and environmentally appropriate ways of waste management, particularly for the context of global South cities.

Grassroots waste picker organizations addressing the UN sustainable development goals

“…The Inter-ministerial Committee of the Brazilian Solid Waste Policy and the Steering Committee for the Implementation of Reverse Logistics were also created under this law. With the addition of Decree 7404 (December 23rd, 2010), a last-minute alteration was made, allowing for waste incineration, previously not permitted under the PNRS, which impacts recycling programs and livelihoods (Demaria & Schindler, 2016;Gutberlet, Bramryd, & Johansson, 2020).…”

‘Accumulation by appropriation’: The integration of recyclable-waste collector cooperatives in Salvador, Brazil, and the right to the city

“…Waste regimes throughout much of the world have undergone political reforms at national, regional, and local levels, which have led to the emergence of new waste management practices based on the representation and use of waste as an exploitable resource or as a commodity frontier (Gutberlet et al., 2020; Reno, 2015). In some cases, this has resulted in the privatization of municipal waste management services and in the enclosure of waste commons leading to dispossession and conflicts (Fahmi, 2019; Lane, 2011; Luthra, 2019; Samson, 2019; Schindler and Demaria, 2020).…”

Impacts of Covid-19 on organized waste pickers in selected municipalities in the State of São Paulo

“…"There are, however, barriers associated with the private economic interests involved, which, in turn, are part of a vicious circle that makes it difficult to break away from the contract-based logic that prioritizes collection, transshipment, and landfill use to the detriment of a broader and more inclusive selective waste collection." (JACOBI;BESEN, 2011, p. 154) In this context, picker organizations propose changes in "waste management regimes" (GILLE, 2007;BRAMRYDE;JOHANSSON, 2020), transforming technological (labor-intensive waste collection and transport), organizational (workers in associations and cooperatives), and policy (decentralization of services and greater transparency) aspects. MNCR's work in the drafting of federal policies is an important example of this changeoriented action: "[...] the amendment of the Sanitation Law (Lei de Saneamento, 2007) and the approval of the National Solid Waste Policy (Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos, 2010) included the pickers in federal regulatory frameworks.…”