Waste Warriors: The Fight for Waste Justice and Participatory Rights in the City

Cities produce mountains of waste daily. Yet too often waste is poorly governed, and becomes a climate, public health, and environmental policy problem. This article investigates how effective civil society pressure can be in achieving sustainable waste policies in densely populated cities. The paper draws on over 50 interviews to illustrate how following legacies of authoritarian rule in the waste sector, activists in Argentina recast waste as a vehicle for exercising participatory rights that undergird urban democracy. Local activists leveraged national and transnational networks to participate in a global struggle for waste justice. Battles for equitable and participatory waste management are influencing waste policy at multiple scales and effectively recasting waste as a collective, public problem, even as waste management continues to be a pressing urban governance challenge.