Household Recycling and Consumption Work ─ Social and Moral Economies

Recycling is high on the global economic agenda, with governments across the world pledging increases in their recycling rates. However, success in reaching targets often relies on the input and effort of the household and consumer. This comparative study of household recycling in Sweden and England shows that by sorting their waste, consumers perform an integral role in the overall division of labour within waste management processes. 'Consumption work' has not been systematically explored as a distinctive form of labour, and this book argues that treating it seriously requires revision of the conventional approach to the division of labour. Exploring the shaping of this 'consumption work' by systems of provision and moral economies, Wheeler and Glucksmann reveal how consumers are differentially persuaded to contribute to recycling schemes.

Kathryn Wheeler is Lecturer in Sociology at The Open University, UK. Her research focuses on ethical consumption and moral economies. She is the author of Fair Trade and the Citizen-Consumer: Shopping for Justice? (2012), which analyses the organisations, institutions and grassroots networks that promote and support fair-trade in the UK, USA and Sweden.


Miriam Glucksmann is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, UK and Visiting Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, UK. She has longstanding interests in work, employment and gender, especially restructuring, and connections between, different forms of labour. Her books include Structuralist Analysis in Contemporary Social Thought (1974, 2014),Women on the Line (1982, 2009), Women Assemble (1990), Cottons and Casuals (2000), and the jointly editedA New Sociology of Work? (2005). She completed a programme of research on 'Transformations of Work' as an ESRC Professorial Fellow in 2007, and was funded by the European Research Council (2010-2014) to research 'Consumption Work and Societal Divisions of Labour'.