Waste Valorisation: Between the Private Interest and the Social Benefit

Luisa Fernanda Tovar Cortés

Econógrafos, Escuela de Economía from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID

Abstract: Bogota is a referent in social inclusion of waste pickers. In 2016, waste pickers organizations became part of the cleaning public service as providers, and they start receiving a payment. Even though the amount of collected and valorised waste has increased, the waste buried in Doña Juana’s landfill continues to grow. The paper problematizes waste valorisation in Bogota through the waste/value dialectic (Gidwani, 2012; Gidwani & Maringanti, 2016) (Gidwani, 2012; Gidwani & Maringanti, 2016). A social waste valorisation approach has been included to rethink the concept of waste beyond a resource to be reinserted into the market and rather consider it as a booster for building community networks. The methodology is based on a literature review and qualitative and quantitative research strategy involving the analysis of the official information, interviews with waste pickers, visits and field observations in Bogota accomplished since 2015. The analytical framework is developed to understand and discuss the value of waste as essential to define its management, to identify who benefits, and to support processes of a social transformation through the waste.

Keywords: waste management; valorisation; social inclusion; waste pickers; Bogota (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 B59 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27
Date: 2021-09
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Published in Doctorado

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000176:023755

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