ABSTRACT

Southern Waste geographies have focused on informal waste-picking and the emergence of neoliberal waste regimes as responses to inadequate Household Solid Waste Management (HWSM) – exploring cost-benefit relationships, labour, and market dynamics, respectively. Less understood regarding reconfigurations of waste governance is the role and performance of Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (ENGOs) that have attempted to improve HSWM and recycling practices through Community-Based Recycling Interventions (CBRIs). Exploring the case of Wildlands Conservation Trust (WCT) “wastepreneur” initiative in rural and peri-urban communities in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, this study sought to critically assess the sustainability and labour dynamics of the intervention, highlighting its response to changing conditions. The project had initial successes in both facilitating and compensating pro-poor peri-urban waste-picking, generated high expectations and positively impacted recycling practices and perceptions in the process. After a point, however, the initiative experienced financial and institutional challenges which precipitated a restructuring of the initiative in line with prevailing recycling market dynamics – of which it had been naïve – and changing government labour funding; fostering a significant downscaling and disappointment on the part of participants. The findings highlight the limitations of CBRIs in hybrid governance contexts and with underdeveloped recycling markets, and the need for analysis that moves beyond critiques of neoliberalism to consider the ongoing role of the developmental state in local urban service provision.

摘要

南部废物地区侧重于非正式的废物挑选和新自由主义废物制度的出现，以应对家庭固体废物管理 (HWSM) 不足——分别探索成本效益关系、劳动力和市场动态。对于废物治理的重新配置，人们不太了解的是环境非政府组织 (ENGO) 的作用和绩效，它们试图通过基于社区的回收干预 (CBRI) 来改善 HSWM 和回收实践。Wildlands Conservation Trust (WCT)案例探究”在南非夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省农村和城郊社区的倡议中，这项研究试图批判性地评估干预措施的可持续性和劳动力动态，强调其对不断变化的条件的反应。该项目在促进和补偿有利于穷人的城郊垃圾捡拾方面取得了初步成功，产生了很高的期望，并在此过程中对回收实践和观念产生了积极影响。然而，在一段时间之后，该倡议遇到了财务和体制挑战，促使该倡议根据当前的回收市场动态进行重组——这在当时是幼稚的——并改变了政府的劳动力资金；助长了参与者的严重缩减和失望。