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Cited by 184Recycling and Waste Management TechniquesMunicipal Solid Waste ManagementWaste Management and Recycling

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

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Gregson, Nicky, Crang, Mike·2015·Annual Review of Environment and Resources
DOI 10.1146/annurev-environ-102014-021105
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Abstract

We outline the frameworks that shape and hold apart waste debates in and about the Global North and Global South and that hinder analysis of flows between them. Typically, waste is addressed as municipal waste, resulting in a focus on domestic consumption and urban governance and an emphasis on cities and the national scale. The prevailing ways of addressing the increasingly global flows of wastes between the North and South are those of global environmental justice and are underpinned by the geographical imagination encoded in the Basel Convention. New research on the trades in used goods and recycling in lower income countries challenges these accounts. It shows that arguments about dumping on the South need revision. Wastes are secondary resources for lower income countries, harvesting them is a significant economic activity, and consequent resource recovery is a key part of the global economy. Four areas for future research are identified: (a) changing patterns of global harvesting, (b) attempts to rescale resource recovery and the challenges faced, (c) the geopolitics of resource recovery, and (d) changes in resource recovery in lower income countries.

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176 of 176 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Global plastic waste trade flows from high-income countries to low-income countries have become a routine since the late 1990s.

    “global plastic waste trade flows from high-income countries to low-income countries have become a routine since the late 1990s6,7.”

    From China’s plastic import ban increases prospects of environmental impact mitigation of plastic waste trade flow worldwide (2021) · cites this paper as [7]

    Section 2.3.3 (p. 10) says waste flows from the Global North to the Global South expanded dramatically since the late 1990s. The Introduction (p. 2) includes plastic scrap in the growing trade and says high-income countries are major exporters while lower-income countries are major importers. It does not establish specifically that plastic-waste flows along that route became routine in the late 1990s. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Cites

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1 of the 177 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 15

  1. [16]Medina M. 2007. The World's Scavengers . Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press
  2. [20]Clapp J. 2001. Toxic Exports: The Transfer of Hazardous Waste from Rich to Poor Countries . Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press
  3. [44]Nixon H, Saphores J-D. 2009. Information and the decision to recycle: results from a survey of US households. J. Environ. Plan. Manag. 52(2):257-77
  4. [51]Barr S. 2007. Factors influencing environmental attitudes and behaviours-a UK case study of household management. Environ. Behav. 39(4):435-73
  5. [69]Gregson N. 2007. Living with Things: Accommodation, Ridding, Dwelling . Oxford: Sean Kingston Publ.
  6. [72]Evans D. 2014. Food Waste . London: Bloomsbury
  7. [82]Ferrell J. 2006. Empire of Scrounge . New York: N.Y. Univ. Press
  8. [101]Hayami Y, Dikshit A, Mishra S. 2006. Waste pickers in Delhi. J. Dev. Stud. 42(1):41-69
  9. [120]Bjerkli C. 2013. Governance on the ground: a study of solid waste management in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Int. J. Urban Reg. Res. 37(4):1273-87
  10. [124]Gill K. 2012. Of Poverty and Plastic: Scavenging and Scrap Trading Entrepreneurs in India's Informal Economy . New Delhi, India: Oxford Univ. Press
  11. [142]Lara-Valencia F, Harlow S, Lemos M, Denman C. 2009. Early dimensions of hazardous waste generation in rapidly industrialising cities along the US border. J. Environ. Plan. Manag. 52(2):195-216
  12. [144]Grineski S, Collins T. 2010. Environmental injustice in transnational context: urbanisation and industrial hazards in El Paso/Ciudad Ju´ arez. Environ. Plan. A 42(6):1308-27
  13. [150]Lepawsky J. 2015. Are we living in a post-Basel world? Area 47(1):7-15
  14. [172]Furniss J. 2015. Alternative framings of transnational waste flows: reflections based on the Egypt-China PET plastic trade. Area 47(1):24-30
  15. [176]Reddy R. 2013. Revitalising economies of disassembly. Econ. Polit. Wkly. 48(13):63-71

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Authors
Gregson, N., & Crang, M.
Affiliations
Durham University (GB)
ORCID
Venue
Annual Review of Environment and Resources
Publisher
Annual Reviews
Published
2015-11-04
Volume
40
Issue
1
Pages
151-176
ISSN
  • 1543-5938 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-2050
DOI
10.1146/annurev-environ-102014-021105
OpenAlex
W2135561930
Cited by
184
References
177
Citations by year
2026: 22 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 5
FWCI
0.97
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Annual Review of Environment and Resources (publishedVersion)
  • Durham Research Online (Durham University) (acceptedVersion)
  • Durham Research Online (Durham University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Recycling and Waste Management Techniques
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Municipal Solid Waste Management
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Waste Management and Recycling
Keywords
waste trade, recycling economy, resource recovery, North-South relations, Basel Convention, environmental justice, waste dumping, used goods trade, low-income countries, municipal solid waste

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