“Garbage is Gold”: Waste-based Commodity Frontiers, Modes of Valorization and Ecological Distribution Conflicts

Seth Schindler, Federico Demaria*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Waste is increasingly viewed as a resource rather than an externality. However, new waste management regimes must be introduced in order for value to be created, enhanced and captured. We refer to these regimes as modes of valorization, and they establish the conditions that allow waste to become a commodity frontier. The production of waste-based commodity frontiers is often accompanied by dispossession, and this explains why conflicts surrounding the ownership over and control of waste have proliferated worldwide. This article introduces a special issue of Capitalism Nature Socialism that includes papers focused on the establishment of new modes of valorization and concomitant impacts in India, South Africa, Turkey and the U.S.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)52-59
Number of pages8
JournalCapitalism, Nature, Socialism
Volume31
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Federico Demaria acknowledges the support of the European Research Council for the EnvJustice project (GA 695446) and the Spanish Government for the project COSMOS (CSO2017-88212-R). We are thankful to the contributors to this special issue, the editors at CNS Marco Armiero and saed, the reviewers and the participants of the sessions held at the Conference of the American Association of Geographers in 2017.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Center for Political Ecology.

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