Nancy Hagan
Raquel Gutierrez
Subhana Nisar
Jeff Schauer
Walter Wu
Money can set you free. Money can imprison you. Or, it can do both simultaneously. The drastic range of reactions to the entity which permeates our lives (money) demonstrates its plurality, and its conceptual existence, parallel to (but often-overlooked in everyday life) its entrances and exits from our wallets. From Georg’s Simmel’s early twentieth century tract on “The Philosophy of Money,” to the musings of a twenty-first century former-cab driver at an Albertson’s car park, opinions on money run the spectrum. However, not all uses of money are straightforward transactions in the way that we often think of them. The practise of recycling provides a framework for analysing not only different uses of money (and ways of obtaining it), but different conceptions of it as well. In the course of several interviews, and a tour of a recycling centre, we gained some insight into how people view the money behind recycling, in the form of the California Redemption Value (CRV) deposit, and were able to explore their rationales for partaking in activity that is both obviously global and intensely local. Recycling and its corresponding hidden monies can keep individuals or families in neighbourhoods from total destitution, but can also generate international concerns over labour exploitation. Recycling relates to locally-based initiatives, but also to the international “green movement”. A diverse range of experiences puts recycling, CRV, and money into perspective. Click here to learn more about CRV and the strange economy of recycling.
1 comment:
This paper explores the curious economy of recycling, and reveals it to be a world full of different counting systems and number scales (cash redemption value as a per-unit nickel or dime; versus the measuring of and payment for recyclable materials by weight instead of unit at the recycling station). It also shows the local/global connections linking your water bottle to the world economy at every level of scale: from the homeless person who makes a living collecting "trash," to the humming engine of the Chinese economy that imports cardboard and plastic and other materials from recycling centers in the US. I found absolutely eye-opening the work the students did in uncovering the history of recycling as well as the surprisingly profit orientation of the waste management business: stuff becomes "recyclable" when there is a buyer somewhere in the world for it. The students collected some wonderful interview data, too, and the paper makes for really, really interesting reading.
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