Convened by Ilaha Abasli and  Anna Elias, The International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam,  and Jyothi Thrivikraman and 
Min Cho, Leiden University College

Waste is commonly approached as a technical-material challenge requiring better management and innovative solutions. However, this panel reframes waste as a fundamentally socio-political phenomenon embedded within global power structures, economic dependencies, and contested governance systems in the Global South.

In the Global South, waste politics intersects with historical and structural inequalities and development schemes, while informal sector workers - waste pickers, recyclers, and repair specialists - sustain crucial yet undervalued waste economies. Meanwhile, international waste flows, including e-waste and plastic dumping, perpetuate geopolitical hierarchies, positioning the Global South as both recipient of environmental harm and site of waste management.

As the “waste to wealth” narrative gets increasingly popularised in the Global South through waste valorization - increased monetary value and amount from waste, our panel seeks to understand how this changes the socio-material realities in the ground. In particular, it focuses on how informal and community led waste management groups (re)organise themselves,their labour and how these changes affect  their livelihoods. 

In other words, waste systems justify control or neglect over people, places, and objects categorized as disposable, while simultaneously transforming natural materials into valuable resources or unwanted refuse. This approach reveals waste as a powerful lens for understanding contemporary global inequalities, environmental justice, and alternative economic practices