Doctoral student Ambre Fourier and professor Éric Pineault explore recycling as a social process, highlighting the invisibilization of domestic work, inclusion in sorting centers and the casualization of migrant workers.
Summary
While we see more and more logos on our consumer products and talk about “good management” of our waste, too few studies document the diversity of manual practices involved in these circularity processes. Discourses on the circular economy tend to invisibilize the people who, through their daily work, make it possible to divert materials from landfill. Recycling” implies a diversity of socio-cultural practices (habits, gestures, production/consumption), infrastructures (transport, sorting centers, etc.) and a market (brokers, recyclers, etc.). Pointing out this obvious fact is a way of emphasizing that the process is not limited to the chemical characteristics of “matter”, but involves society as a whole. This reality also creates a tension, since the various dimensions mentioned above remain specific to each (national) territory, while “materials” circulate on an international market, mainly as a packaging medium for our consumer products.
Perceiving recycling as a “social process” also reveals that the “value chain” so desired by circular economy promoters begins with “reproduction” work, i.e. work carried out within the private sphere, unpaid and not considered as such (Simonet, 2018; Federici, 2021). So, even in the home, it’s women who are more “concerned with the future of daily waste”. This finding, based on an analysis – currently being processed – carried out on the basis of web discussion forums, is largely confirmed by the literature (Wilde, M. de, & Parry, S, 2022).
Making this first observation invites us to be critical of discourses that limit themselves to emphasizing “public awareness”, without ever acknowledging the difficulty of this “work”. However, we suggest that a first step in the fight against “ecofatigue” (Observateur de la consommation responsable, 2023), would be to recognize the complexity of the sorting task, too often considered to be simple. In fact, this task – especially at this stage – requires a good knowledge of the reality of the ever-changing environment, as it involves learning a particular taxonomy, itself highly subject to market fluctuations.[1]
« Reconnaître la valeur de ces activités permettrait à celles qui les accomplissent d’obtenir un véritable statut et davantage de gratifications, tout en incitant les autres groupes sociaux à prendre également leur part de ce travail.» (Glenn, 2000).
In addition, this process of “purifying matter” – another way of describing recycling – continues on the outskirts of cities, in sorting centers. Among the infrastructures present on Quebec soil are numerous adapted enterprises (Investissement Québec, 2021). These organizations opened their doors to us as we began our ethnography. The specificity of these organizations is that they are inclusive in their organizational practices, working with neuro-atypical people who are often far removed from the job market. They have been in the vanguard of what is now known as the circular economy, but do not serve as a sufficient model for the future, particularly at a time when extended producer responsibility (EPR) is being introduced. However, they are exemplary in terms of occupational health and safety, which we will document in part of our thesis.
Labor shortages (envirocompétence, 2021) are leading the sector to call on “temporary migrant worker” programs (Soussi, 2015), as is already the case in the agricultural sector or in homecare activities. This low-profile reality needs to be taken into account when thinking about “green jobs”. The fact that it is marginalized people who occupy this type of position translates into a “double devaluation” of the activity (Glenn, 2000) and a lack of recognition (Honneth, 2004) even though they have significant knowledge. This is what our current thesis aims to demonstrate.
[1] Even if things are currently being simplified with the introduction of EPR for packaging, they still raise a lot of questions from the public.
