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Countercycling: an Ethnographic Study of Waste, Recycling, And

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Countercycling: an Ethnographic Study of Waste, Recycling, And Countercycling: An Ethnographic Study of Waste, Recycling, and Waste-Pickers in Curitiba, Brazil By Francisco Calafate-Faria Department of Sociology Goldsmiths, University of London Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2013 1 Declaration I certify that this thesis is my own work. References to the work of others have been cited and indicated throughout. Francisco Calafate-Faria 2 Abstract: This thesis is a sociological investigation on the recycling of urban waste. It is based on fieldwork carried out in the Brazilian city of Curitiba. The author used a combination of interviews, analyses of quantitative data, and participant observation to understand the work and modes of organisation of informal collectors of recyclables in this city. Curitiba is known in Brazil as the “first-world capital” and, in the world of urban planning, as a “model city” or an “ecological capital city”. These encomiums result in part from Curitiba’s ground-breaking recycling campaigns and systems of waste collection, sorting, and commercialisation. However, the city’s model image hides an army of urban poor and circuits of informal transactions that actually do most of the recycling work. These informal infrastructures are mostly responsible for the city’s official recycling rates, which are comparable to those of the most recycle-minded European cities. The main objective of this research project was to highlight what has been wasted in the building of these idealised images, both of the city and of municipal recycling. The work, organisation, and political struggles of waste-pickers in Curitiba provided the opportunity to carry out this project. Through their work and forms of organisation, waste-pickers (catadores) struggle for a space and for change in the urban economy. The author’s thesis is that catadores’ position in between systems of value, presents a chance to challenge dominant discourses on recycling, which waste people and resources. I introduce the notion of 'countercycling' in order to make sense of the hidden politics of urban recycling. 3 Table Of Contents List of Images .................................................................................................................................................................. 6 List of Acronyms ............................................................................................................................................................ 8 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................................... 9 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 11 De-Familiarising Municipal Recycling .................................................................................................. 13 “Ecological Capital” and Waste-Pickers : Two Disjointed Histories ........................................... 20 Sociology as ‘Countercycling’ ................................................................................................................... 24 Outline of the Thesis ................................................................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER ONE. ON THE VALUE OF A SOCIOLOGY OF WASTE AND RECYCLING ...... 28 Introduction: Why We Need a Sociology of Waste and Recycling ............................................... 29 Urban ‘Scavengers’: Invisibility and Appearance ............................................................................. 34 “Rubbish that isn’t Rubbish”: Recycling as Reconfiguration of Values ...................................... 50 Recycling Value ............................................................................................................................................. 54 Closing the Cycle: Recycling’s Openings and Enclosures ................................................................ 68 Accounting for the Values Retrieved from Waste ............................................................................. 70 CHAPTER TWO. SETTING, RESEARCH, AND REPRESENTATION .............................. 78 Introduction: Why Ethnography ? .......................................................................................................... 79 The fieldwork ................................................................................................................................................ 97 The Ethnography ......................................................................................................................................... 99 Temporality, Circulation, and Mobility in Fieldwork: Travel Methods .................................. 104 Conclusion and Ethical Cautions. ......................................................................................................... 118 CHAPTER THREE. OCCUPATION: CATADOR ........................................................ 120 Circulating through the City .................................................................................................................. 129 Working in the Urban Space ................................................................................................................. 144 Time and Temporality ............................................................................................................................ 157 Conclusion: Autonomy in Want of Organisation ............................................................................ 165 CHAPTER FOUR. SOCIALISING WASTE: RECYCLING COOPERATIVES .................... 167 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 170 4 Organisational Forms: Asssociations vs Cooperatives ................................................................. 174 Reasons for Cooperation ........................................................................................................................ 183 Obstacles to Cooperation ....................................................................................................................... 191 The Formation of an Association of Recyclers in Curitiba. ......................................................... 200 Conclusion: the Socialisation of Labour and Mateirals ................................................................ 207 CHAPTER FIVE. MARKETS OF MATERIALS: EXCHANGES BY AND BEYOND CATADORES ....................................................................................................... 209 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 213 The Social Geometry of Recycling ....................................................................................................... 217 A Market of Peculiar Exchanges ........................................................................................................... 225 A Glance Beyond the Membrane .......................................................................................................... 235 Conclusion: Multiple Circuits, Defying the Idealised Market ..................................................... 240 CHAPTER SIX. COUNTERCYCLING: ALTERNATIVE CIRCUITS OF VALUE ................. 243 The Materiality of Possibilities ............................................................................................................ 248 Short-circuits: Catadores’ Sense of Social Positioning and Ways to Improve it. ................. 261 On the Possibility of Unplugging and Countercycling .................................................................. 268 Conclusion: Countercycling and the Engagement with Other Organisations ....................... 277 CHAPTER SEVEN. RIGHTS TO WASTE: RE-POLITICIZING URBAN RECYCLING ........ 279 Politics through the Law ......................................................................................................................... 290 Eco-cidadão – Project or Policy? .......................................................................................................... 307 Catadores as Subjects of Politics .......................................................................................................... 315 Conclusion: Open Space for the Reconfiguration of Strategies ................................................. 325 CONCLUSION: THE USES OF COUNTERCYCLING .................................................. 327 The Thesis ................................................................................................................................................... 332 Expanding the Notion of Value ............................................................................................................. 339 Imagining a Post-Recycling World ...................................................................................................... 344 Waste, Countercycling, and a New Sociological Imagination ..................................................... 350 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 354 5 List of Images Figure 1 "You must recycle or face a fine of up to 1,000 pounds” (Lambeth Council leaflet 2011) ............................................................................................................. 15 Figure 2 Visual artist
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