Introduction

Abstract

Abstract This chapter introduces the keys aspects of (1) Why this book: The research questions; (2) How this book was made: The methods; and (3) What this book is about: A preview of the chapters. Lacking social recognition, recyclers are looked down as beggars, criminals, drug addicts, and alcoholics. Instead, an informal recycler (often called waste picker or rag picker) is a person who salvages reusable or recyclable materials thrown away by others to sell it and obtain a livelihood. According to the International Labour Organization the informal recycling sector is a way of making a living for over 30 million people in the Global South. Despite their large number, they have been neither properly investigated nor taken into account in formal waste management policies. The book aims to fill in this gap. Calls for integrating the informal recycling sector into the formal waste management systems have mainly gone unheard. Improving our understanding of this sector is a first essential step if we intend to improve their conditions and the sustainability of the economy. To this end, from the perspective of situated political ecology, and based on extensive field work lasting a decade, the book focuses on two case studies in India about the social relations of recycling: ship breaking in Alang-Sosiya, and solid waste management in Delhi. The book sheds light on the relationship between social metabolism (that is the flows of energy and materials) and political economy, or else materiality, power relations and social conflicts, with a focus on waste.