From dust you came, to dust you shall remain . . . from plastic you shall rise again

This preliminary study examines socio‑ecological practices in Northern Vietnam. Here, discarded plastics are collected, sorted, processed and circulated through labour that is economically marginal, environmentally hazardous yet socially generative. Waste is not only a means of survival but a lived socio‑ecological condition, where environmental degradation intertwines with aspirations for social mobility, care and resilience. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the study traces how plastic recycling constitutes relational and embodied practices aimed at preserving economic value and dignity. These practices are embedded in moral economies, where improvisation and care for materials, families and environments create meaningful pathways through pollution, scarcity and marginalisation. The study highlights a paradox: while recycling mitigates environmental harm, it simultaneously reproduces toxic exposure, labour precarity and social inequality. The article explores the concept of precarious ecology to show how global circular economies depend on local forms of toxic craft, through which waste workers create value, absorb pollution and sustain social aspirations. The article advocates a relational, practice‑based perspective on everyday life in toxic landscapes, where the afterlives of global waste are absorbed as marginalised communities strive to build futures. Rethinking sociology from the margins of the global waste system may begin here, where pollution, precarity and possibility converge.