IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/20175_5.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Waste and the circular economy

In: Industry 4.0 and the Future of Work

Author

Listed:
  • .

Abstract

In Chapter 5 we explore how waste is conceptualized as a thing and how it and its production must be situated politically, economically, and spatially. We illustrate this argument by investigating the production of waste under twentieth-century capitalism in the USA. We note how, during this time period, manufacturers created a specific ‘waste regime’ through encouraging the disposability of their products. This has contributed to waste now being viewed semiotically as a ‘problem’. We also examine how the export of much of the waste from the Global North to China represented an important spatial fix to capitalism’s waste problems, as well as consider the geographical effects on global waste management and the i4.0 era of the Chinese government’s decision to stop importing such waste from 2018 onwards. Key to understanding ‘waste’ and working on waste, we aver, is that it is endemic, not incidental to capitalism.

Suggested Citation

  • ., 2024. "Waste and the circular economy," Chapters, in: Industry 4.0 and the Future of Work, chapter 5, pages 138-165, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:20175_5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781800375376.00011
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:20175_5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.