Reimagining e-waste circuits: calculation, mobile policies, and the move to urban mining in Global South cities

Abstract

In this article, I describe how calculative practices of enumeration and visualization mobilized by policy actors to govern the multiple mobilities of e-waste and its re-materialization as value in the informal-recycling economies of Global South cities have resulted in e-waste being recalibrated as an “urban mine.” To properly govern and fully exploit e-waste qua urban mines, policy actors have developed the Best-of-2-Worlds (Bo2W) model. I show that the antecedent of the Bo2W model is the Clean e-Waste Channel implemented in Bangalore, India’s “Cyber City,” which has retroactively been recast as the first successful implementation of the Bo2W model. While policy actors mobilize Bangalore’s success to boost this model and facilitate its mobility to other Global South cities, I conclude by offering a critical assessment of the Bo2W model for the prospects of informal recyclers in Global South cities and the creation of uneven geographies of e-waste toxicity.

Keywords:

• informal recyclers
• e-waste
• urban mine
• StEP Initiative
• mobile policies
• Best-of-2-Worlds model
• Bangalore

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.