Global destruction networks, labour and waste

Abstract

Analysis of waste has largely focused on the physical transformation of commodities at the ends of their lives. This has led to a discourse of ongoingness in which the re-use of commodities' parts is often seen to be almost endless. Such a focus on form, though, fails to adequately account for the movement of value-used here in the Marxist sense of 'congealed labour'-or to recognize the centrality of the labour process in shaping how previously used parts are prepared for inclusion in new commodities. As a way to correct such failings, here we present the concept of Global Destruction Networks (GDNs). In so doing we make two key arguments: (i) there are indeed limits to commodities' ongoingness when viewed from the perspective of the production, transfer and realization of value and (ii) workers play key roles in shaping how GDNs are structured.