Thoughts on Poverty from a South Asian Rubbish Dump:Gender, Inequality and Household Waste

Abstract

Summaries The author reflects on the interlocking circuits of accumulation and consumption that characterise the management of household solid waste or garbage in two South Asian cities. She examines the multiple axes of inequality and interdependence that characterise the social relations of residential waste work. Interactions are explored among household members, and between them and paid waste workers such as domestic workers, sweepers and pickers. The article challenges gender stereotypes of women having a special affinity with the environment, at least in the context of the urban environment and solid waste management. It also rejects any essentialist linking of particular social groups to waste and dirty work, arguing that in the case of both gender and caste relations, association with waste is socially constructed. It is argued that women's responsibility for waste management in the household gender division of labour is mediated by both wealth and poverty. Equally, that particular groups of waste workers have occupational niches in different areas of waste work is mediated by gender and caste‐like relations. A case is made for recognising the micro‐politics of household and residential solid waste management in policy formulation and planning. The article proposes that this has implications both for effective waste management and for policies concerned to integrate anti‐poverty strategies in efforts to improve the managment of urban services.

Resident Knowledge and Willingness to Engage in Waste Management in Delhi, India

“…This may be because women have a closer engagement with waste management at the household level [42]. Studies in Uganda, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Vietnam also found that women were more involved in source separation than men in the household [43][44][45]. The situation in traditional, Southern Italian society is also similar [46].…”

Recovery of consumer waste in India – A mass flow analysis for paper, plastic and glass and the contribution of households and the informal sector

“…Dry waste with economic value is recovered successfully in most developing countries including China (Li, 2002;Mo et al, 2009;Chen et al, 2010), African Countries (Agunwamba, 2003;Fahmi and Sutton, 2006;Masocha, 2006;Nzeadibe and Iwuoha, 2008), Latin America (Medina, 2000(Medina, , 2005Dias, 2011); and other Asian countries (Beall, 1997;Zurbrügg et al, 2012), while, successful models for the recovery of organic waste are more limited (Binns and Fereday, 1996;Cofie et al, 2005;Nunan, 2000;Zurbrügg et al, 2004Zurbrügg et al, , 2012.…”

“…Sources: Waste generation CPCB andEPTI (1999-2000); CPCB andNEERI (2004-2005) and CPCB andCIPET (2010-2011 but found it difficult to quantify the amount of material recovered by the informal sector. Even fewer studies attempted to elucidate the role of households in resource conservation and recycling (Anand, 1999;Beall, 1997;Zia and Devadas, 2008). Bain et al (2010) pointed out that thriftiness and reuse of materials is a common practise in Indian industries and that a high emphasis is placed on recovery, reuse and recycling of waste.…”

From Waste to Resource: The Trade in Wastes and Global Recycling Economies

“…It characterised and classified wastepickers; it explained their presence in terms of rural-urban migration, and it positioned wastepicking within analyses of the informal economy, and within ethnically, racially and gendersegregated labour markets [e.g. 79,80,81,82]. The second wave of research post-2000 is coincident with growing concerns about a 'waste crisis' in the Global South consequent on both urban expansion and increasing scales of consumption and new types of materials in consumer discards.…”