IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v50y2018i1p14-30.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Nothing is useless in nature†: Delhi’s repair economies and value-creation in an electronics “waste†sector

Author

Listed:
  • Julia Eleanor Corwin

Abstract

This paper follows the return of electronic waste back into commodity circuits through widespread processes of reuse, repair and remanufacturing across Delhi, India. Tracing the movements of “waste†from the scrap shop back into secondary use industries, I situate e-waste in India as operating primarily within economies of reuse and repair, rather than waste and recycling. Instead of managing waste, India’s broad reuse industries are production-based, maintaining and making new things out of a diversity of new and used materials. The production of value from used things is dependent on the e-waste trader and the repair worker, who see the potential for seemingly unlimited trajectories of multitudinous conditions and configurations. This view of e-waste from the repair shop (and even the scrap shop) rather than a recycling factory offers a very different rendering of e-waste and particularly informal e-waste labor in the Global South than is presented in policy and popular media. Building on scholarship on vibrant waste economies, I demonstrate that India’s electronic “waste†sector is in fact a powerful source of value (and product) creation and call into question e-waste as a definitive “waste†product and its management in a “waste†economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Julia Eleanor Corwin, 2018. "“Nothing is useless in nature†: Delhi’s repair economies and value-creation in an electronics “waste†sector," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(1), pages 14-30, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:50:y:2018:i:1:p:14-30
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X17739006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X17739006
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X17739006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alastair Iles, 2004. "Mapping Environmental Justice in Technology Flows: Computer Waste Impacts in Asia," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 4(4), pages 76-107, November.
    2. Andrew Herod & Graham Pickren & Al Rainnie & Susan McGrath Champ, 2014. "Global destruction networks, labour and waste," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 421-441.
    3. Josh Lepawsky & Grace Akese & Mostaem Billah & Creighton Conolly & Chris McNabb, 2015. "Composing Urban Orders from Rubbish Electronics: Cityness and the Site Multiple," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 185-199, March.
    4. Nicky Gregson & Mike Crang, 2010. "Materiality and Waste: Inorganic Vitality in a Networked World," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(5), pages 1026-1032, May.
    5. Andrew M. King & Stuart C. Burgess & Winnie Ijomah & Chris A. McMahon, 2006. "Reducing waste: repair, recondition, remanufacture or recycle?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 257-267.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joshua Lohnes & Bradley Wilson, 2018. "Bailing out the food banks? Hunger relief, food waste, and crisis in Central Appalachia," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(2), pages 350-369, March.
    2. Prosman, Ernst Johannes & Cagliano, Raffaella, 2022. "A contingency perspective on manufacturing configurations for the circular economy: Insights from successful start-ups," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    3. Ruth Lane, 2014. "Understanding the Dynamic Character of Value in Recycling Metals from Australia," Resources, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-16, April.
    4. Mariale Moreno & Carolina De los Rios & Zoe Rowe & Fiona Charnley, 2016. "A Conceptual Framework for Circular Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-15, September.
    5. Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar & Shauhrat S. Chopra, 2022. "Leveraging Blockchain and Smart Contract Technologies to Overcome Circular Economy Implementation Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, August.
    6. Lampel, Linda, 2020. "Value capture and distribution in second-hand clothing trade: The role of charity discourses, commercial strategies and economic and political contexts," ÖFSE-Forum, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE), volume 72, number 72.
    7. Fedoua Kasmi & Ferney Osorio & Laurent Dupont & Brunelle Marche & Mauricio Camargo, 2022. "Innovation Spaces as Drivers of Eco-innovations Supporting the Circular Economy: A Systematic Literature Review," Post-Print hal-03590438, HAL.
    8. Pauline Deutz & Gareth Neighbour & Michael McGuire, 2010. "Integrating sustainable waste management into product design: sustainability as a functional requirement," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(4), pages 229-239.
    9. Florian Lüdeke‐Freund & Stefan Gold & Nancy M. P. Bocken, 2019. "A Review and Typology of Circular Economy Business Model Patterns," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(1), pages 36-61, February.
    10. Kirchherr, Julian & Reike, Denise & Hekkert, Marko, 2017. "Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 221-232.
    11. Rikke Marie Moalem & Mette Alberg Mosgaard, 2021. "A Critical Review of the Role of Repair Cafés in a Sustainable Circular Transition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-25, November.
    12. Sabbaghi, Mostafa & Esmaeilian, Behzad & Cade, Willie & Wiens, Kyle & Behdad, Sara, 2016. "Business outcomes of product repairability: A survey-based study of consumer repair experiences," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 114-122.
    13. Saraji, Mahyar Kamali & Streimikiene, Dalia, 2022. "Evaluating the circular supply chain adoption in manufacturing sectors: A picture fuzzy approach," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    14. Jaber, Mohamad Y. & Rosen, Marc A., 2008. "The economic order quantity repair and waste disposal model with entropy cost," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 188(1), pages 109-120, July.
    15. Daan Kabel & Mattias Elg & Erik Sundin, 2021. "Factors Influencing Sustainable Purchasing Behaviour of Remanufactured Robotic Lawn Mowers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, February.
    16. Hallak, Bassam K. & Nasr, Walid W. & Jaber, Mohamad Y., 2021. "Re-ordering policies for inventory systems with recyclable items and stochastic demand – Outsourcing vs. in-house recycling," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    17. Louise Møller Haase & Line Sand Lythje, 2022. "User Strategies for Prolonging Product Lifetimes: A New Starting Point for Circular Conceptual Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-18, November.
    18. Arzu Şener & Oya Hazer, 2008. "Values and sustainable consumption behavior of women: a Turkish sample," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(5), pages 291-300.
    19. Bonney, Maurice & Jaber, Mohamad Y., 2013. "Developing an input–output activity matrix (IOAM) for environmental and economic analysis of manufacturing systems and logistics chains," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(2), pages 589-597.
    20. Kristian Saguin, 2017. "Producing an urban hazardscape beyond the city," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(9), pages 1968-1985, September.

    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:sae:envira:v:50:y:2018:i:1:p:14-30. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.