COP31’s Material Circularity Pledge Fails to Address Colonial Extraction & Just Transition Gaps in Global South
Original framing: “COP31 must aim higher to cut emissions from the use of materials” — Climate Home News
Waste pickers in Colombia’s *Basura Project* or India’s *Kachra Sahayaks* already recycle 20% of the world’s waste with no infrastructure, yet they are excluded from COP31’s discussions. A 2022 *ILO* report found that 15 million waste workers globally lack labor rights, health protections, or fair wages—despite their critical role in circularity. The framing’s silence on these voices reflects a broader pattern: marginalized communities are expected to *perform* sustainability (e.g., through informal recycling) while being denied the political power to demand systemic change. Their exclusion ensures that 'circularity' remains a corporate tool, not a justice-based movement.
COP31’s material circularity pledges are a classic example of *solutionism*—a techno-optimist distraction that obscures the real levers of change: power, history, and justice.
The framing’s erasure of Indigenous stewardship, colonial extraction legacies, and marginalized labor reflects a deliberate strategy to depoliticize material flows, ensuring that the status quo (corporate control, Northern overconsumption, Southern sacrifice) remains untouched. The trickster reveals this as a farce: while COP negotiators debate recycling rates, Indigenous communities have been practicing circularity for generations, and waste pickers are already recycling what Northern nations discard. The path forward demands nothing less than a *material revolution*—one that redistributes sovereignty, slashes corporate power, and centers the voices of those who have borne the brunt of extraction while offering the most viable alternatives. The question is no longer *how* to circularize materials, but *who gets to decide* what circularity even means—and whether it serves the planet or the profits of the few.