POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF WASTE AND RESIDUALS: UTILIZATION OF ORGANIC RESIDUALS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE DOUBLE CRISIS OF WASTE. THE CASE OF BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA
Utilization, food waste, political ecology, garbage, market, social metabolism, public policy, organic waste
This doctoral thesis research project seeks to develop an analysis of the distributional ecological conflict of garbage and pollution arising from the operation of the 'Doña Juana' Landfill (ASDJ), which is reproduced in the rural-urban border area of the 'Mochuelo' region, located in the southern outskirts of Bogotá (Colombia). From the theoretical perspective of the political ecology of garbage and waste and a methodology based on the society-nature dialectic, the work is integrated by four components that include global environmental conventions and public policies; the transboundary market; the garbage crisis; and community alternatives for the use of organic waste for its transformation into fertilizer or organic manure. This research aims to understand the normative frameworks and the dynamics of the international garbage and waste market in order to support the examination of the qualitative and quantitative dimension of the garbage crisis in which the State, society, the affected community, private enterprise, and other agents involved interact. In this way, it structures the analysis of this ecological conflict and goes deeper into the search for alternatives, through the discussion of the experience of the project of utilization of organic waste under the leadership of the organization of recyclers 'Sineambore' in partnership with the Mayor's Office of Bogotá and together with the community of 'Mochuelo', which reveals itself as an alternative with the potential to contribute to the regeneration of the environment, to agricultural and agroecological production, and to the dignification of life and the work of recycling organics, and the collective health of the communities that inhabit this region.