Journals

Cities are at once generators of waste of various kinds and key sites for innovative practices of reuse and recycling through which waste products become revalued. The Inter-Asia Roundtable 2011 examined waste practices and products in urban Asia. The framing of the Roundtable included, but also extended beyond, conventional definitions of recycling (as making new products using materials from waste products). As such, ‘recycling cities’ also meant new uses of existing urban space and material fabric as well as ways in which urban models, ideas and cultural practices are reworked over time.

Held on 1-2 August, the two-day Roundtable was comprised of five panels, each consisting of two sessions (one revolving around a presentation by an invited speaker and comments from two discussants, and the other an open discussion). The three presentations on the first day zoomed in on the recycling of specific material products in Asian cities: (1) Plastics, (2) E-Waste, and (3) Water. On the second day, the remaining two presentations considered practices of urban recycling, focusing on: (4) Informal Recycling Practices and (5) Sustainable Urbanism. This booklet includes the five papers, comments from two discussants on each of the papers and a summary of each of the five open discussion sessions.