Today’s article was complex but quite rich. Titled, ‘Contesting Urban Metabolism: Struggles over Waste-to-Energy in Delhi, India’ by Frederico Demaria and Seth Schindler, it sets the scene for the rise of political and social unrest as the economy and waste management methods in India evolved over the course of about 25 years.

The authors begin by comparing the flow of resources and waste in a city to that of single celled organism, but are quick to note that it’s not a simple equation of input = output, since money and power structures also play a role in the distribution of resources.

The article specifically discusses the development of waste-to-energy incinerators in Delhi as a solution to the growing volume and density of the waste. However, the first incinerators had an unpleasant side effect – they belched out toxic ash into the surrounding middle class neighborhoods. So began the public demonstrations and legal proceedings that have middle class Indians demanding more accountability and action from municipalities and the call to shut down the incinerator.

On top of that, the privatization of waste management in Delhi has lead to the local waste-pickers being muscled out of their only source of income, as they are forcibly removed from transfer stations, door-to-door collections or made to pay a fee to continue (assuming they can afford it, which most of them can’t). This lead to a very real, but very uneasy alliance between the middle class and the waste-pickers affected in these neighborhoods dominated by the incinerators.

The article highlights these two groups’ very different motivations. The middle class wants the feeling of affluence and status afforded to those who live on clean streets with access to urban green space. The toxic by-product of the incinerators is not only a danger to public health, but also an eye-sore and another obstacle to being a resident of a “world-class city”. For the waste-pickers, it’s a question of lost income, as more and more recyclable material is gathered and burned in the incinerators. Without formal education or the ability to work in another field, they are loosing whatever meager income waste-picking provides.

In the case of the Okhla area incinerator, middle class citizens with their access to politicians and social media used the waste-picker’s arguments to bolster their own, while at the same time making sure to keep their neighbors of lesser means at arms length.

In the case of the Ghazipur area incinerator, the middle class residence are of a  slightly lower economic status and would join the waste-pickers in the same demonstrations. This difference between the two areas highlights once again how class effects social an political reform.

Another interesting element to the article was the explanation of both the formal and informal waste management streams that for a time flowed side by side. Formal meaning the privatized companies that contract with the municipal governments  for the right to remove waste from certain areas of the city and Informal being the system of about 200,000 rag pickers (as of 2005) who comb the various gaps in the formal stream in order to collect recyclables and make a living. I want to print the diagram from the article for my reference.

The article also discusses the formation of waste-picker Unions and NGO’s and how they advocated for the various neighborhoods.

Also included is a brief history of the how the composition of waste in Delhi changed starting in the 1980s, when the government started subsidizing commercial fertilizer, leaving the once widely used organic waste to literally rot in the streets or be informally dumped. Also starting  in the late 80s into the 90s, cheap plastic began to be used in India – plastic being the primary material waste-pickers collect since it earns them the most.

One of the things I want to look into more now that I know there is a Waste-to-Energy facility in my own county is, why the Delhi incinerators were dumping toxic ash into the air. According the website of my local waste management company, any toxic emissions are filtered and collected. The ash is gathered and used to cover portions of the landfill instead of using clean, valuable top soil. I will look into this further and try to understand more how incinerators work.

All together an interesting article that took me a long time to get through considering it was only 21 pages. I took a lot of notes. =)

-Ashley