ABSTRACT
Under China's draft 'circular economy', the dump is legally obliged to separate recyclable waste from landfill. The company that runs the dump openly admits that injuries have arisen from large machinery suddenly moving into action unaware of the presence of waste collectors. The Expo had guaranteed millions of dollars of foreign direct investment and provoked an ambitious regeneration plan on the part of the Shanghai authorities, keen to prove themselves following the success of the Beijing Olympics. The ambitions of the Expo regeneration were two-fold and explain why the 'cracks' to be cleaned were both literal and conceptual. In Shanghai, the removal of material waste and its spaces corresponds to the desired shift from manufacturing to service and information industries. In fact, migrant labour is by all accounts behind the economic success of China, and the flow of workers from rural to urban areas shows little sign of abating.
