Waste accumulation in Jakarta’s slums: Neoliberal flows of waste distribution

Abstract

Urban slums in the Global South have a formidable challenge of mismanaged waste. Behind this challenge lies urban politics, creating disproportionate exposure to waste in marginalized settlements. This paper articulates an urban political ecology of uneven waste accumulation in slums with a case study of Jakarta, Indonesia. I apply a mixed-methods approach, by integrating a spatial regression model with a critical qualitative analysis, to draw the connection between the slums’ waste crisis and neoliberal waste infrastructure. Since the mid-2010s, Jakarta’s waste governance has shifted from a conventional collect-transport-dispose model to a circular economy model operating under a technocratic and neoliberal economy. Under the shifted governance, the informal sector has been strengthened through the integration of high-tech infrastructure to reduce waste and extract new profits from materials. However, the sector has been unevenly strengthened across the city, creating two flows of waste accumulation activities. First, the strengthening has been accelerated in low-income residential areas by introducing financial incentives for the informal sector to make up the shortfall created by public services. Consequently, the informal sector in slums—with its limited focus on recyclable materials—has led to the accumulation of mismanaged non-recyclable waste in unregulated dumpsites of slums. On the other hand, public services are relatively prevalent in capital-intensive areas to promote the economic growth. However, due to its compact land-uses in those areas, the services utilize the unregulated dumpsites in slums as semi-permanent landfills for storing the collected waste.