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Reclaiming and Recirculating Urban Natures: Integrated Organic Waste Management in Diadema, Brazil

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  • Julian S Yates

    (Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 1984 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada)

  • Jutta Gutberlet

    (Department of Geography, University of Victoria, PO BOX 3060 STN CSC, Victoria, BC V8W 3R4, Canada)

Abstract

Although developing world cities are increasingly the focus of urban political ecology perspectives, waste remains an underexplored aspect. This paper helps to fill this thematic gap by using urban political ecology as a lens for analyzing flows of food waste in the Brazilian city of Diadema. The marginal urban poor in Diadema, as in most other cities in Brazil, lack access to affordable fresh fruit and vegetables yet must cope with a disproportionate accumulation of uncollected waste. Integrated organic waste management, consisting of decentralized household-waste collection by organized recycling groups, waste processing, and the utilization of food waste for composting and urban food production, is presented as way of reclaiming and recirculating urban natures for potentially positive socioecological change. However, it is a process characterized by conflict and potential exploitation, while broader structural conditions constrain the ability of the system to offer an alternative to existing waste-management models. The paper concludes with a call for further action-oriented research within urban political ecology to reveal opportunities for new socioecological futures which should occur at multiple scales and emerge from the lived realities of marginalized actors such as catadores (recyclers) and urban gardeners.

Suggested Citation

  • Julian S Yates & Jutta Gutberlet, 2011. "Reclaiming and Recirculating Urban Natures: Integrated Organic Waste Management in Diadema, Brazil," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(9), pages 2109-2124, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:43:y:2011:i:9:p:2109-2124
    DOI: 10.1068/a4439
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Erik Swyngedouw, 2009. "The Antinomies of the Postpolitical City: In Search of a Democratic Politics of Environmental Production," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 601-620, September.
    2. Cecilia Rocha, 2009. "Developments in National Policies for Food and Nutrition Security in Brazil," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 27(1), pages 51-66, January.
    3. Julian Yates & Jutta Gutberlet, 2011. "Enhancing Livelihoods and the Urban Environment: The Local Political Framework for Integrated Organic Waste Management in Diadema, Brazil," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(4), pages 639-656.
    4. Aneel Karnani, 2009. "Romanticising the poor harms the poor," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(1), pages 76-86.
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    1. John, Beatrice & Luederitz, Christopher & Lang, Daniel J. & von Wehrden, Henrik, 2019. "Toward Sustainable Urban Metabolisms. From System Understanding to System Transformation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 402-414.

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