Urban Slums and Circular Economy Synergies in the Global South

The reality of informalization and ‘slummification’ of Global South cities has garnered much interest in academic and policy circles at international, national, and local levels, as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda, and even broader issues around Sustainable Futures. Here, the Circular Economy (CE), which encompasses questions around material production, use, re/de-compositions, and their environmental impact, is gradually gaining a foothold in sustainability discourses in southern cities. Yet, the gradual insertion of CE in the Global South often perceives urban slum dweller activities and livelihoods as detrimental to the circular cities and sustainable futures agenda. This introductory chapter sets the context for rethinking this conventional pathological view of the urban slum–CE nexus. It briefly synthesizes urban transitions, circular economy, and urban slums. It then provides an overview of the collection of insightful essays in this volume that foreground the synergies between everyday activities in slums (livelihoods, housing, and space) and the core principles of the circular economy. In doing so, it opens the door for systematic, pragmatic, and locally situated theoretical and policy directions to explore the role of urban slums in the circular cities agenda.

Informal urbanization in the Global South has, over the years, received scholarly and policy attention. Amidst this sphere of urbanism are the growing socioeconomic and environmental laggardness and challenges which drive the adoption of circularity practices. This chapter aims to examine the linkages between informal settler practices and circularity principles and how they align with the sustainable cities agenda. It draws on a review of secondary sources such as journal articles, grey literature, and official government reports to present evidence from India, Brazil, Bangladesh, and Argentina. The findings reveal that informal settlers engage in solid waste recycling for building purposes. It was also revealed that leftover pieces of wood and wooden pallets are reused for furniture and home decor. This chapter, therefore, recommends support from governments and the private sector for the adoption of adaptable circular practices evident in informal settlements, which have generally been regarded as the origin of most urban problems.

This chapter investigates circular economy practices in the informal housing construction sector based on case studies situated in Africa, Asia, and South America. The examined cases highlight the application of circular material use within the informal settlements largely based on downcycling, first through reuse and subsequently recycling. In addition, one case exemplifies upcycled waste from the formal city used as interior and exterior cladding of housing. Moreover, the chapter highlights deliberate design strategies for dwelling expansion that enable housing adaptations to accommodate future household needs according to the available economic resources, underscoring distinct approaches to the circular economy in dwelling design that constitute forms of resilient urbanism. The presented cases underscore that the use of reclaimed materials for construction is a notable common practice in informal settlements, particularly among low-income groups, although almost all housing across all cases were made of virgin industrial construction materials. The findings underscore that traditional vernacular architecture is a relatively marginal phenomenon in contemporary urban areas in the Global South, as industrial construction materials such as corrugated iron sheets and reinforced concrete have proliferated based on market mechanisms.

The circular economy (CE) has garnered much attention due to its potential to contribute to sustainable development. While CE initiatives, such as container-based toilets, waste upcycling, biomass energy generation, and circular building materials, hold promise for improving infrastructure and economic opportunities, particularly in slums, there are different and at times contradictory perceptions of the concept of CE. Leveraging CE potentials thus requires a better understanding of CE awareness and perceptions. To explore CE in the context of Rwandan slums, this book chapter sought to answer the following two research questions: What is the level of CE awareness and which perceptions prevail in Kigali’s slums? What are the key CE-related practices in Kigali’s slums? Fifteen key informant interviews and 12 focus group discussions were conducted with stakeholders in the slums of Kigali’s districts Kicukiro, Gasabo, and Nyarugenge. The findings reveal that circularity is present in the slums, albeit informally, with little emphasis on business and entrepreneurship. Repurposing emerged as the most prominent circular practice. Besides, the study uncovered a significant skills gap in waste sorting, which is critical as Rwanda seeks to implement a national policy requiring waste sorting at the source.

The Construction Sector in Bangladesh has accelerated over the last few decades, particularly since Dhaka, the nation's capital, has been the focal point for major physical development-related activities such as the construction of new satellite towns, housing, apartments, and infrastructures. Dhaka's population is growing rapidly as a consequence of development initiatives, which led to a dramatic rise in the city's urbanization and a corresponding rise in the demand for housing facilities. Currently, the trend toward constructing new high-rise structures is continuously emerging, while existing low-rise structures are being demolished in and around Dhaka. Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste, in huge quantities, was, therefore, produced as a byproduct, then added to the waste stream, and ultimately headed for the landfills. Through content analysis of regulatory documents, conducting a questionnaire survey with slum dwellers, and direct observations, this research aims to explore the scopes and preferences of slum dwellers to use recycled C&D waste as construction products for slum houses in Dhaka. This study provides a substantial contribution to the concept of C&D waste reduction by proposing an alternate application for the construction or renovation of slum dwellings, as well as introducing novel approaches to circular waste management and improving the effectiveness of existing resource management practices.

Rapid urbanization, population growth, and a surge in household formation have outpaced the provision of affordable, decent housing for low-income city dwellers. These households have limited choices and transform existing structures to meet their housing needs. Though this housing transformation primarily focuses on meeting supply needs and strategizing adjustments, it also promotes the concept of circular and sustainable cities. Our review and analysis of the existing literature have allowed us to situate the principles of circularity within housing transformations, exploring the synergy between them. We found that households alter, extend, replace, and materially modify existing houses to meet housing needs. These practices align with the principle of repurposing. Furthermore, changes in construction materials contribute to enhanced durability and decreased reliance on finite natural resources, promoting sustainability. Moreover, this housing transformation process supports the reduction principle, as it fosters urban infilling, helping to prevent urban sprawl. When managed effectively, housing transformation can contribute to circular approaches that substantially reduce land and vegetation consumption, decrease waste, and aid in realizing circular and sustainable cities.

Spatial informal urbanism practices towards value retention and circularity have received little attention in extant literature. Yet, informal settlements in African cities have played out as built spaces for necessity-driven value retention of materials, goods, and services, which potentiate the circularity of waste resources. This chapter highlights informal settlement practices that contribute to value retention and circularity of waste materials in selected African cities. This perspective departs from and contests dominant but empirically misleading notions of informal settlements as the “habitus of environmentally deteriorating practices” in northern scholarship. Data for the chapter is derived from secondary sources such as journal articles and grey literature. The findings of the chapter reveal that spatial informal urbanism practices oriented towards meeting everyday basic socioeconomic needs in the form of sorting out waste for recycling, reuse, and repurposing support circular principles and are critical to realizing circular goals in Africa’s informal cities. The chapter invites scholars and practitioners to recognize and support informal urbanism practices that contribute to the circular cities agenda while addressing any trade-offs and disservices that negatively affect the capacity of informal settlement dwellers to advance circular initiatives from below.

This paper addresses the missing link between the circular economy and energy production from agricultural residues in central Uganda. Using wasted agricultural residues for decentralized electricity generation has the potential to sustainably address some of the biggest development challenges in the Global South. To understand which residue types are wasted, the author surveyed smallholder farmers in Masaka District, Uganda. Using the percent of each residue type wasted and the existing gasification technology, it was determined that the region’s energy potential represents 14% of the existing electricity capacity of Uganda. The results are interpreted within the agricultural and socioeconomic context of the studied area. Finally, recommendations are made for the realization of a circular economy in Uganda and other African countries with similar patterns of resource generation and use.

Global South cities are reclaiming a new metropolitan cultural framework and a structural matrix that binds different urban morpho-types to improve its economic and spatial dynamics. Today, new and old ways to use local resources are scaled in time among practices that exist since the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial phases. To align the theoretical and conceptual grounds of the circular economy with sustainable urban development principles in the Global South, the potential benefits associated with non-planned or low-income settlements in promoting circular and sustainable cities should be investigated by recognising the infrastructure connections between planned (loti) and non-planned (non-loti) settlements. This also means trying to overcome the classic monocentric city model regarding services, functions and economic attractivity to create more accessible and equitable spatial distributions that consider accessibility for all and facilities diffusion as the main values of a balanced urban structure. It is therefore essential to shape an inclusive planning approach to support citizenship by generating knowledge for a collective action based on a new city model’s storytelling through maps. The MSLab’s innovative approach introduces an open-source mapping methodology: Metropolitan Cartography, which relates the geographic ground to spatial structures to manage scarce urban resources. We aim to showcase the effectiveness of an inclusive planning approach that utilises a new city model’s storytelling through open-source maps as a tool. By doing so, we seek to empower metropolitan citizens to generate knowledge for collective action.

Globally, national and city governments in developing regions are making frantic efforts to regulate and manage electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) to protect the environment and reduce its attendant environmental effects on the urban populace. Because of the above, some countries have formulated several policies and legislations aimed at tackling the problem of e-waste at different aspects of the value chain and effectively manage the negative ecological footprints often associated with e-waste proliferation. In global south cities, discussions on policies and legislations on the management of e-waste have rarely been situated in the circular economy discourse, and more so how the implementation of these policies and legislations harness circular economy principles for sustainable development. Drawing on a content analysis of scholarly literature and policy/legislative documents, this chapter aims at examining policy and implementation gaps in the management of e-waste in Ghana and its implications on the quest towards a circular economy development paradigm. We assert the imperative for e-waste management to be institutionally framed in circular economy principles to advance progress towards the sustainable urban development in Ghana.

This concluding chapter weaves together the individual contributions in this book to develop a slum-circular economic model that aligns slum livelihoods, slum spatial appropriations, and slum housing with the core principles of the circular economy. The chapter makes the case for a just circular transition. It argues that policies that instill distributive, procedural, and recognitional justice in the slum-circular economy nexus are essential to reduce the harms and maximise the benefits of slum dwellers’ everyday interactions with waste and other related materials. It teases out strategies such as social protections, participatory decision-making through coproduction, occupational health, skills training, and innovation in the policy and development planning for circular and sustainable cities. It concludes with three theoretical propositions and future research directions.