Recycling Infrastructures in Cambodia: Circularity, Waste, and Urban Life in Phnom Penh

With checkered hats and colorful clothes, and carrying heavy pushcarts full of recyclable waste, the Ed Jais of Cambodia are the key figures in Kathrin Eitel's Recycling Infrastructures in Cambodia: Circularity, Waste, and Urban Life in Phnom Penh. In the book, Eitel explores the role, dynamic, and practices of the Ed Jais (waste pickers/waste collectors) in Cambodia and identifies an emerging practice within a complex waste network that the author labels infracycles. Eitel explains how the work of the Ed Jais contests the global capitalist system through their labor autonomy, freedom, and will to survive. The author traces the flow of recyclables collected by Ed Jais along the waste supply chains and uncovers how Cambodia is exploited as a global waste sink while at the same time challenging some of the dominant “waste fantasies” around solving the waste crisis pushed both by international and local actors (e.g., policymakers) on land, culture, and livelihood (12).The book engages with discard studies scholar Max Liboiron's framing of waste and infrastructure and illustrates why Phnom Penh is a perfect example of what Liboiron describes as a case of “pollution is colonialism” (12). In the case of Phnom Penh, Eitel identifies the historical roots of plastic and aluminum products and connects these to the role of colonialization in Cambodia and the creation of structural inequalities. These inequalities are then reflected in the recycling economies, particularly in the relations between the Ed Jais, the numerous recycling depots, and the many subinfrastructures Eitel labels “infracycles.” Hierarchies of solutions for the waste crisis are also reflected in what the author calls waste fantasies, whereby green policies and clean visions developed by “experts” and implemented in Phnom Penh promote postcolonial approaches that intervene and disrupt the everyday lives and work of the Ed Jais.Like many other Southeast Asian countries that opened their doors to market liberalization, this book outlines how neoliberal capitalist reform resulted in an influx of plastic packaging from Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and other multinational corporations. While these products and their associated packaging quickly overwhelmed Phnom Penh's ability to manage the waste, for some it also represented modernity, prosperity, and wealth. It is important to note that only 1 percent of the plastic waste in the city is actually recycled locally. Thus, the role of Ed Jais in collecting, trading, and dealing with a network of depot sellers, other Ed Jais, and homeowners is critical to the burgeoning recycling economy in Phnom Penh as waste products continue to grow. Eitel argues that seemingly well-intentioned fantasies/solutions and promises of modernity can act as a form of cultural imperialism on the people of Cambodia and thus in turn devalue the important work and, in some cases, the liberation offered through waste collecting. As such, the book challenges the idea of a singular and linear notion of progress and therefore a singular solution to the waste crisis. In particular, the book cautions against solutions to waste management that disregard the important role of Ed Jais and the need to consider their livelihood.Ed Jais, as Eitel argues (using the concept developed by AbdouMaliq Simone), may also be considered as “people as infrastructure” (14). Infrastructure goes beyond buildings and recycling centers. Rather, it is also a concept and practice that explains relationality (e.g., labor, social orders, urban living). Beyond sites of recycling consisting of tubes, wires, roads, and pipelines, infrastructure can also be considered as a “collaborative network” (15) that facilitates the flow of goods, peoples, or ideas and allows for urban living. Between the Ed Jais (people as infrastructure) and their interaction with the recycling centers (collaborative infrastructure), Eitel argues against a singular and linear notion of progress and therefore a singular solution to the waste crisis. In particular, the book cautions against solutions to waste management that disregard the important role of Ed Jais and the need to consider their livelihood.The second chapter explores the dynamics between Ed Jais and the streets they have to navigate with their pushcarts and bags, and the relationships (sometimes competitive) between Ed Jais belonging to the four hundred different recycling depots across the city. These depots purchase everything from plastic, aluminum, metal, and steel to paper and cardboard. What many consumers from the global North do not realize is the reality of the global network of waste buyers and sellers, with various depots working to deliver different materials to different customers, such as paper waste to Thailand, e-waste to Singapore, and plastics to Vietnam and China. Interestingly, when China banned the worldwide plastic import to their countries and stopped being the “landfill of the world,” the global North found its way to pivot their waste dumping to Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia. Cambodia is one of the many Southeast Asian countries that are not responsible for producing the vast quantities of waste they process.Of note in the book is part 3, “Emerging. Oozy Materialities,” and the concept of freedom in the work of Ed Jais. Despite the messiness, precarity, and ooziness (153) of their work, Eitel argues that Ed Jais experience a sense of freedom and independence in their everyday work. This realization was quite shocking to Eitel, but many Ed Jais felt that their work facilitated labor autonomy and self-determination.What is unfortunate is that the style and prose of the monograph initially is inaccessible and wordy, especially in the introduction (“The Map to Begin With”). Better editing would have helped the author avoid obfuscating many of the important arguments and points in the book. Hidden behind the winding and at times overly abstract prose is an important critical analysis of the important role of Ed Jais and stories that would have otherwise not been told. After the initial first chapter, chapters 2 and onward do get better and more accessible. Scholars of discard studies, urban informalities, Southeast Asian studies, planning, and urban studies will benefit from this book.

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