Claiming value in a heterogeneous solid waste configuration in Kampala

ABSTRACT

Kampala has a complex set of regulations describing actors, rules and procedures for collection and transportation of waste, and requires waste to be disposed of at the landfill. Yet little of the city’s waste moves through this “formal system”. Building on wider scholarship on urban infrastructure and calls to theorize from southern cities, we examine recycling in Kampala as a heterogeneous infrastructure configuration. Kampala’s lively recycling sector is socially and materially diverse: it is comprised of entrepreneurs, public-private partnerships and non-governmental organizations, as well as a range of materials with different properties and value. We articulate how actors assert claims, obtain permissions, build and maintain relationships as they rework flows away from the landfill. We argue that recognizing socio-material heterogeneity throughout the waste configuration enables a clearer analysis of contested processes of claiming value from waste. We also demonstrate how these efforts have pressured the state to reconsider the merits of the modern infrastructure ideal as a model for what (good) infrastructure is and ought to be. Various actors assert more heterogeneous alternatives, raising the possibility of alternative modes of infrastructure which might generate better incomes and improve service provision.

KEYWORDS:

• Southern urbanism
• infrastructure
• waste recycling
• heterogeneous infrastructure configurations (HICs)

Acknowledgments

We thank all those working in the solid waste management sector in Kampala for sharing their time and knowledge. We also thank anonymous reviewers for their feedback, which helped us to clarify our manuscript. The Swedish Research Council VR (Vetenskapsrådet) is acknowledged for providing funds for this research through the grant “Heterogenous Infrastructures of Cities in Uganda Project (HICCUP)” (Dnr: 2015-03543; project website http://www.situatedupe.net/hiccup/).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported authors.

Funding

This work was supported by the Vetenskapsrådet [ Dnr: 2015-03543].

Notes

1. We use the terms “reclaimer” or “recycler” rather than the vernacular terms in Kampala (scavenger or waste picker) for their resonance with global literature and positive connotations.

2. KCCA was established in 2010 through an act of the national government allegedly because of longstanding mismanagement by Kampala’s municipal government. Kampala’s municipal government has typically been run by the opposition party, raising questions about the motivations and legitimacy of this new authority (see Doherty, 2019a; Lindell et al., 2019).

3. It was reported that the Uganda Plastic Manufacturers and Recyclers Association (UPMRA) worked with waste reclaimers against the plastic carrier bag ban in 2009 but we are not aware of a formal organization of waste reclaimers in this context. See more on UPMRA in the main text.