CONTEXTO FISICO GEOGRAFICO

Despite the challenges that informal metal recyclers experience, there are many benefits to collecting metal for livelihood that make informal metal recycling worthwhile and significant to the city. One of the most apparent benefits of recycling metal informally is the freedom and flexibility that comes with the work. KW, a recycler who has physical issues with his back is grateful for the flexibility of the informal waste sector.

I do [scrap metal recycling] but I know I can’t work because I can’t go on nobody job because they gon’ want me to move in a way that I can’t move anymore... I be like “I’ll see y’all Monday, then I will see y’all Thursday” ‘cause I know I need to take a break. (interview with KW, Informal Metal Recycler)

KW, who only started scrapping one year ago, says that because of his back, being employed by a company would be a challenge because of his inability to do strenuous physical work. Working in the informal recycling sector allows him to decide when he will return to work if his body requires rest before beginning another day of collecting materials. Reginald echoes KW’s appreciation for the flexibility in the informal sector.

Freedom, independence, not having to deal with office politics or work politics as much. Being your own boss [and] not having to brown nose. To a certain degree you will have to do that to get what you want out here too, but just far less. I think that's probably the biggest advantage next to it being non-taxable; it's like wide open, free income.

(interview with Reginald, Informal Metal Recycler)

Reginald talks about the freedom to choose the relationships he fosters with other people in the informal metal recycling industry. For some, freedom comes in not having to complete strenuous work that may compromise their physical health or having the freedom to choose who they want to build work relationships with. For others, collecting scrap metal for recycling is a resistance to power. Gordon, a 58-year-old informal metal recycler, discusses the liberties of deciding his own schedule.

See, I [worked for] Greyhound Bus Station for 20 years. I worked a long time, so I don't have time, for anybody telling me what to do no more. Either you going to let me work for you and I’m going to work according to how you want me to work, or I don't show up at all... That’s how I picked up scrap metaling, I work at my own pace and at my own schedule. It’s something for me to do, and it relaxes my mind. Don't have me all stressed out. (interview with Gordon, Informal Metal Recycler)

Gordon’s past as a formal employee of a bus company has allowed him to appreciate informal work, which he says allows him to work at his own pace and without stress. The same resistance of power is echoed in Thieme’s (2013: 389-391) ethnographic research on the youth recyclers in

Nairobi, who live by the phrase tunahustle, “we hustle”. The research describes the youth’s

hustle as an “implicit critique of the state’s failings”, where they do not acknowledge authority.

These are the same lumpen people that Nwosu et al. (2016) pulls from Frantz Fanon’s writing, as

a group awakened to the intrinsic benefits of life outside of the formal.

In addition to the above benefits identified through this research, minor benefits to informal metal recycling is exercising one’s body (and potential weight loss). Reginald admitted that metal recycling work keeps weight off of him. Gordon recognized his frequent walks,

picking up metal over the past 11 years, as a form of exercise. Walking also impacts his mental health and proves him an environmentalist: “So it's no big deal to me. It does good for my health. Peace of mind,” says Gordon. The significance of the informal recycling sector is apparent in the benefits the work offers to the recyclers health in addition to supporting their finances, helping a large network of people, and decreasing the impact on the planet.

4.2 The mobility of waste as a socio-technology

Informal metal recyclers are a familiar attribute to the backdrop of many cities, often seen riding around town with a bouncy load of metal pipes, appliances, and fixtures, or pushing a cart overloaded with large plastic bags full of cans. Even in an urban setting in a Minority World country such as metropolitan Atlanta, the informal material recycler is embedded into the makings of urban place. Informal metal recycling is significant to Metro Atlanta because of the ways it supports many actors in the industry with livelihood. Not just for collectors, but also employees who work at the recycling centers, and the ‘sub economy’, which one collector describes as a group of people that benefit from the items picked up by the informal recyclers. This network of beneficiaries from the informal recycling sector are engulfed in what makes informal material recycling in metropolitan Atlanta a socio-technology.