Waste Recovery from the Perspective of Complex Systems Methodology

Abstract

This contribution, developed within the framework of an ongoing doctoral thesis, reflects on the epistemological relevance of approaching waste recovery from a complex systems perspective grounded in a socio-historical lens. It is based on the premise that much of the existing literature has tended to analyze this phenomenon in a sectoral, fragmented, or disciplinarily bounded manner, which limits a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics that articulate social actors, institutions, technologies, and historical processes in specific contexts. In response, complex systems methodology is presented as an approach capable of integrating this multidimensionality, incorporating analytical categories such as emergence, nonlinearity, interdependence, and feedback processes. Within this framework, it is argued that waste recovery in open dumps and sanitary landfills constitutes a privileged node of analysis, as it is in these spaces where structural tensions among economic logics, institutional frameworks, environmental issues, and labor conditions are condensed and made visible. Furthermore, the incorporation of a socio-historical perspective makes it possible to situate these practices within broader processes of urban transformation, social inequality, and public policy. In this way, the articulation between complex systems and a socio-historical approach seeks to provide a novel methodological contribution to the field of waste studies in Latin America.