Waste industry in the context of capital accumulation, international division of labour and labour process: The case of packaging waste

Since the 2000s, the number of sorting facilities and recycling plants in Turkey has increased rapidly, alongside the introduction of new regulations and policies on waste management. This development reflects the broader global trend, beginning in the 1980s, of transforming waste management from a public service into a sphere of capital accumulation. Plastics, initially introduced as environmentally friendly products, have today become a major source of ecological problems; the proposed solution to this issue has been sought in the commodification of waste. The production of commodities from waste includes collection, sorting, and recycling activities carried out by sorting facilities and recycling plants. This study examines the processes of capital accumulation in Turkey's waste industry and its integration into global capitalism through the case of plastic packaging waste. It addresses the transformation of plastics—from their emergence as a material in the late nineteenth century to their central position in contemporary waste management—within the framework of the material–capitalism nexus. In this framework the study approaches the issue from the Marxist political economy perspective. The production of value in the process of capital accumulation is analyzed through the dual character of labor. In this context, collection and sorting activities are viewed as processes of "value preservation," whereas recycling activities are considered as processes of "value production." Within the context of the global waste trade, waste-processing activities in late-capitalizing countries are evaluated through the dynamics of "uneven and combined development." From this perspective, in order to reveal the processes of capital accumulation in Turkey's waste industry and its role in integration into global capitalism, a field study was conducted through face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 12 sorting facilities and recycling plants representatives, using a semi-structured questionnaire.