Participating and Labouring in Circular Transitions: The Case of Community Food Rescue/Redistribution Initiatives in Singapore

With some exceptions, the nexus between diverse ecologies of participation and unwaged labour in circular transitions has not been fully investigated. Additionally, while research on labour and the circular economy has begun to acknowledge the informal unpaid work that is indispensable to closing circularity loops in the household and community, its relational aspects are still discounted in the literature. We seek to address these gaps through our case study on emerging community food rescue/redistribution initiatives in Singapore. Increasingly, these initiatives are gaining success in garnering volunteer labour involving care/relational work through their diverse models of engagement, which cater to a range of preferences. We offer a perspective suggesting that volunteers are often able to find rich regimes of value in the work that they do despite being unpaid. Future research can perhaps explore the ethics of exploiting one’s care for the environment and community in order to extract this unwaged labour.