Ermolaeva Yu.V. The social history of the environment and the role of garbage collectors in a closed-loop economy. Sociology. 2021. No. 5. Pp. 129-138.

Текст статьи/выпуска на сайте журнала URL: http://soziologi.ru/archive/?ELEMENT_ID=31553 (дата обращения 19.11.2021)

Abstract

The article analyzes the history of the transformation of waste collectors’ activities, the process creating a chains of exchange between the state and collectors, their status and autonomy, that completely depends from the institution of environmental control and the distribution of roles. The sociobiological role of the waste collector is becoming more and more acute in the context of global environmental inequality and on the path of the circular economy transition. In different periods of history, the need of the state and municipalities for collectors varied, the more valued secondary raw materials in ecological-oriented cultures, the more steps were created in the hierarchy of waste collectors with a free degree of activity and, accordingly, the more opportunities they have to return secondary resources to the material flow. Previously, their skills and status could be inherited without involving in the institution of education. In the twentieth century. environmental disasters are fueling the emergence of green professions of varying quality of skills, and the demand for them will grow. In other hands, self-employed collectors may face legal restrictions on their activities. Professional and craft communities engaged in the collection and processing of waste are being strengthened, the activities of which are regulated by an ethical and ecological complex of sustainable development with the possibility of growth. The article analyzes the history of the transformationof waste collectors’ activities, the processcreating a chains of exchange between the stateand collectors, their status and autonomy, thatcompletely depends from the institution of environmentalcontrol and the distribution of roles.The sociobiological role of the waste collector isbecoming more and more acute in the context ofglobal environmental inequality and on the pathof the circular economy transition. In differentperiods of history, the need of the state and municipalitiesfor collectors varied, the more valuedsecondary raw materials in ecological-orientedcultures, the more steps were created in the hierarchyof waste collectors with a free degree ofactivity and, accordingly, the more opportunitiesthey have to return secondary resources to thematerial flow. Previously, their skills and statuscould be inherited without involving in the institutionof education. In the twentieth century. environmentaldisasters are fueling the emergenceof green professions of varying quality of skills,and the demand for them will grow. In otherhands, self-employed collectors may face legalrestrictions on their activities. Professional andcraft communities engaged in the collection andprocessing of waste are being strengthened, theactivities of which are regulated by an ethicaland ecological complex of sustainable developmentwith the possibility of growth.

Content (in russ)