Waste recycling in urban Myanmar: unveiling social and environmental (im)balances in Mandalay

Waste recycling plays a critical role, especially in the cities of developing countries, as it contributes significantly both to the economy and to environmental conservation. However, the recycling sector is a complex and often informal industry that generally receives limited governmental support. Furthermore, the recycling sector generally relies on labor-intensive but often harmful processes and technologies. In urban Myanmar, informal small and medium private enterprises dominate the waste recycling industry. The sector is not well-understood and it has hardly been studied in scholarly literature. To bridge this gap, this research project will investigate the everyday socio-economic, environmental and political processes related to the waste recycling sector in Mandalay, the second largest city of Myanmar. Through the lenses of Environmental Justice (EJ) and Urban Political Ecology (UPE), the study will first explore the socio-environmental features of the sector’s everyday operation. Second, it will analyze the power relations linking the sector’s actors to one another. Finally, it will look at how Burmese urbanization impacts this sector and, vice versa, how this sector influences current urbanization processes. Taking waste recycling as an entry point, this timely study aims to develop a critical understanding of the socio-environmental concerns that need to be considered and understood in order to foster sustainable urbanization in Myanmar.