Is there room for a circular economy “from below”? Reflections on privatisation and commoning of circular waste loops in Argentina

Abstract

The Circular Economy (CE) narrative is spreading at a global scale, addressing different actors and settings, and thus facing new theoretical and empirical challenges. However, CE initiatives in the Global South have tended to extrapolate developed countries’ perspectives, as if the CE provides a global and universal benchmark to converge to. Drawing from a political ecology of waste in Latin America and building on empirical data derived from two case studies of recycling initiatives in Argentina, we focus on how the issue of formalisation of previously informal recyclers could be framed within the CE. Then, we outline two contrasting models, the privatisation of informality on the one hand and the formalisation of commoning on the other. Thus we highlight the extent to which the CE narrative could be used to overlook power relations dynamics, or, to what extent it could be reframed to foster a CE “from below” that could provide a clear path to achieve greater levels of equity and social justice.