Territories of Trash: Accumulation by Dispossession in Morelos, Mexico

Abstract

Accumulation by dispossession occurs in the waste sector because of the configuration of “trash territories.” This article is based on a study of the localization of sites for the final disposal of waste and the use of sociodemographic information of affected populations and for explaining why certain places become sites for the final disposal of waste and others do not. Further, we explore the implications of the “opening up” of new spheres of accumulation. The article argues that the metabolism of waste confirms that capital reproduces its own conditions of production (the use of nature and cheap labor) at the same time as the process of production continues. This means the final condition of accumulation is the reproduction of the conditions of accumulation. Capital has found the construction of territories of waste is a way of reproducing these conditions.