PlastiCITIES: Changing Waste Work in Urban Kenya

project summary

How are efforts to tackle plastic pollution changing the lives of those who make a living from waste? PlastiCITIES answers this question by looking at the who, where and why of plastic recycling in Kenya. Kenya, like many other countries, is implementing policies that aim to create a circular economy in post-consumer plastics. These policies are meant to transform linear ‘make-take-waste’ economies into sustainable closed loop systems, recycling post-consumer plastics back into the economy. We already know that in many cases these policies are marginalizing and excluding those who have long made a living from plastic waste. We do not fully understand the new forms of work that are emerging as countries, like Kenya, move towards a circular economy in plastics. Our project investigates changing waste work mapping who waste workers are, where they are working, who they are working for and why are doing this work. Across three cities in Kenya we will build a body of ethnographic, survey and policy data which will document how lives are changing on the emerging waste frontier. We examine labour histories, the social and political lives of waste workers and the gendered nature of waste work. Our research and analysis will provide a better grounding for policy discussions and advocacy efforts. PlastiCITIES is a partnership between the University of Copenhagen, Kenyatta University and the Busara Centre in Nairobi.