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Waste picker organisations (WPOs) around the globe collect, transport and process waste to earn their living but represent a widely excluded, marginalised and impoverished segment of society. WPOs are highly innovative, created by grassroots out of “nothing” to deliver economic, social and environmental sustainability. Still, we do not know how such innovations are developed, and how they are disseminated and adopted by other groups. This article examines characteristics, challenges and innovations of WPOs across five countries in Latin America and East Africa. It is based on quantitative and qualitative data regarding modes of organisation and management, gender, received support, business orientations, environmental and social contributions, and innovations developed in response to multiple challenges. The paper provides a comprehensive understanding of WPOs’ activities and their grassroots innovations in the Global South. The study shows how WPOs contribute significantly to the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the societies they serve as well as the wider urban societies. To start and maintain WPOs in informal settlements with a lack of infrastructure, institutional frameworks, and public and private investors is a difficult quest. WPOs take many different organisational forms depending on the complexity of local realities, ranging from advanced collective organization as cooperatives to small self-help groups and microentrepreneurs. Self-organisation into regional and national networks provides economic opportunities, autonomy and stability as well as political influence. Yet, institutional support is fundamental and the lack thereof threatens their existence. Sustaining WPOs as important providers of socio-environmental benefits through governmental and non-governmental actions is a worthwhile undertaking that builds sustainability.

How is it possible to design and deploy circular economy (CE) strategies oriented to inclusive development? How can non-traditional units of production and consumption (i.e., actual productive actors such as waste picker cooperatives and peasant organizations) be integrated into these strategies? Using data collected as a result of two long-term participatory action research projects carried out with a waste picker cooperative in Buenos Aires and 65 peasant families in Chaco (both located in Argentina) the paper opens the door to a proactive critical debate in terms of how to integrate circular economy principles with the development of technological solutions (artifacts, processes and methods of organization). We show that CE holds great potential, both in terms of its contribution to the generation of new interpretive frameworks and also, in terms of nurturing local and inclusive development strategies when it is integrated with collaborative, bottom-up and innovative dynamics. Based on the idea of working with heterogeneous traditional production units (not only with profit-maximizing firms), it is possible to think of social development avenues for vulnerable populations, where the CE principles build up mechanisms capable of maximizing the transformative potential of the resources (including those understood as waste) presented in actual techno-economic matrices.

The discussion on the circular economy (CE) has attracted a rising interest within global policy and business as a way of increasing the sustainability of production and consumption. Yet the literature mostly portrays a Global North perspective. There is a diverse spectrum of community-based organizations playing important roles in resource recovery and transformation, particularly, but not only, in Global South countries, providing innovative examples for grassroots involvement in waste management and in the CE. This article proposes to add a Southern lens, situated in the context of waste picker organizations, to the concept of CE. The discursive framework in this article couples ecological economy (EE) with social/solidarity economy (SSE), focusing not only on environmental sustainability but also on social, economic, political and cultural dimensions involved in production, consumption and discard. We acknowledge that grassroots movements contribute to policy making and improve urban waste management systems. The paper outlines two empirical studies (Argentina, Brazil) that illustrate how waste picker organizations perform selective waste collection services, engage with municipalities and industries, and practice the CE. The research reveals that social and political facets need to be added to the debate about the CE, linking environmental management and policy with community development and recognizing waste pickers as protagonists in the CE. Our findings emphasize a need for a change of persisting inequalities in public policy by recognizing the importance of popular waste management praxis and knowledge, ultimately redefining the CE.

This article presents the results of an ethnographic study of the practices involved in the design, construction and systematization of machinery by a cooperative of cartoneros (waste pickers) in Argentina. The research demonstrates that as well as providing financial support to the cooperative, this sociotechnical expertise contributes to defining its political identity and its role in the regional and global scenarios that bring together social organizations dedicated to the recovery and recycling of waste. Este artículo presenta resultados de un estudio etnográfico que aborda prácticas de diseño, construcción y sistematización de maquinarias desarrolladas por una cooperativa de \"cartoneros\" (recuperadores urbanos) de Argentina. Esta investigación demuestra que más allá de dar sustento a la actividad económica de la cooperativa, estos ensambles sociotécnicos contribuyeron a definir tanto el proyecto político de la cooperativa como también su rol en el escenario regional y global que concentra las organizaciones sociales dedicadas a la recuperación y el reciclado de residuos. Este artigo apresenta resultados de um estudo etnográfico que aborda práticas de desenho, construção e sistematização de maquinário desenvolvido por uma cooperativa de catadores de papel (recuperadores urbanos) da Argentina. Esta pesquisa demonstra que, mais além de dar sustento à atividade econômica da cooperativa, essas montadoras sociotécnicas contribuíram para definir tanto o projeto político da cooperativa quanto seu papel no cenário regional e global que concentra as organizações sociais dedicadas à recuperação e à reciclagem de resíduos.

[...]about a decade ago, this term designated a vast and heterogeneous assortment of discarded materials that embodied the representation of antivalue: objects depleted of all use and/or exchange value.

Drawing on collective experience from ten collaborative research projects focused on the Global South, we identify three major challenges that impede the translation of research on sustainability and resilience into better-informed choices by individuals and policy-makers that in turn can support transformation to a sustainable future. The three challenges comprise: (i) converting knowledge produced during research projects into successful knowledge application; (ii) scaling up knowledge in time when research projects are short-term and potential impacts are long-term; and (iii) scaling up knowledge across space, from local research sites to larger-scale or even global impact. Some potential pathways for funding agencies to overcome these challenges include providing targeted prolonged funding for dissemination and outreach, and facilitating collaboration and coordination across different sites, research teams, and partner organizations. By systematically documenting these challenges, we hope to pave the way for further innovations in the research cycle.

Este artículo presenta resultados de una investigación realizada en una cooperativa de \"cartoneros\" del área metropolitana de Buenos Aires dedicada al reciclado de residuos, focalizando en el análisis de la materialidad de sus prácticas. A partir del análisis etnográfico de las rutas de objetos descartados como \"basura\" y su posterior apropiación, busco evidenciar los modos en los cuales éstos resucitan en la vida social, cargándose de nuevos sentidos, sosteniendo y/o produciendo nuevos vínculos. Este movimiento de objetos descartados en tránsito da lugar a un complejo proceso social que no solo (re)crea a estas cosas sino también a las personas que entran en vinculación con y a través de ellos. El artículo sostiene que los residuos constituyen objetos material y simbólicamente densos que lejos de representar la fase final del proceso de producción/consumo, juegan un papel importante en la configuración de los vínculos interpersonales que ligan a quienes participan en sus transferencias.This article presents results of research conducted in a cooperative of \"pickers\" of the Buenos Aires metropolitan area dedicated to recycling of waste, focusing on the analysis of the materiality of their practice. Ethnographic analysis of the paths of objects discarded as \"rubbish\" and its subsequent appropriation, my aim is to demonstrate the ways in which they are raised again in social life, charging new senses, holding and/or producing new social linkages. The movement of this objects discarded in transit results in a complex social process that not only (re)creates these things but also people who come into relationship with and through them. This article argues that waste was material and symbolically dense objects that far from representing the final stage of production/consumption processes, play an important role in shaping interpersonal ties that bind those involved in transfers.

This article presents results of research conducted in a cooperative of \"pickers\" of the Buenos Aires metropolitan area dedicated to recycling of waste, focusing on the analysis of the materiality of their practice. Ethnographic analysis of the paths of objects discarded as \"rubbish\" and its subsequent appropriation, my aim is to demonstrate the ways in which they are raised again in social life, charging new senses, holding and/or producing new social linkages. The movement of this objects discarded in transit results in a complex social process that not only (re)creates these things but also people who come into relationship with and through them. This article argues that waste was material and symbolically dense objects that far from representing the final stage of production/consumption processes, play an important role in shaping interpersonal ties that bind those involved in transfers.

This article, presents the results of an ethnographic study of the practices involved in the design, construction and systematization of machinery by a cooperative of cartoneros (waste pickers) in Argentina. The research, demonstrates that, as well as providing financial support to the cooperative, this sociotechnical expertise contributes to defining its political identity and its role in the regional and global scenarios that bring together social organizations dedicated to the recovery and recycling of waste.

This article presents the results of an ethnographic study of the practices involved in the design, construction and systematization of machinery by a cooperative of cartoneros (waste pickers) in Argentina. The research demonstrates that as well as providing financial support to the cooperative, this sociotechnical expertise contributes to defining its political identity and its role in the regional and global scenarios that bring together social organizations dedicated to the recovery and recycling of waste. // ABSTRACT IN SPANISH: Este artículo presenta resultados de un estudio etnográfico que aborda prácticas de diseño, construcción y sistematización de maquinarias desarrolladas por una cooperativa de \"cartoneros\" (recuperadores urbanos) de Argentina. Esta investigación demuestra que más allá de dar sustento a la actividad económica de la cooperativa, estos ensambles sociotécnicos contribuyeron a definir tanto el proyecto político de la cooperativa como también su rol en el escenario regional y global que concentra las organizaciones sociales dedicadas a la recuperación y el reciclado de residuos. Reprinted by permission of the Editorial Committee - Revista Antipoda: Revista de antropologia y arqueologia - Universidad de los Andes