<p>This study examines the social networks of informal recyclers in Fietas, Johannesburg, South Africa, and how these networks function as socio-spatial practices through which informal recyclers assert their Right to the City. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted across multiple Johannesburg suburbs, the study indicates that informal recycling provides livelihoods for marginalised populations and enables informal recyclers to negotiate access, visibility, and belonging in contested urban spaces. Guided by Lefebvre’s concept of the production of space, the article explores how everyday practices, such as movement along collection routes, use of vacant land for storage, and negotiations with residents, police, and municipal actors, constitute a form of urban praxis. Through dense social interdependencies, informal recyclers collectively navigate precarity, exclusion, and uneven governance while sustaining access to material resources essential for survival. The findings demonstrate that these networks are neither uniform nor harmonious. Instead, they are shaped by informal rules, power relations, and territorial contestations that structure access to waste and urban space. By foregrounding social networks as spatial practices, the article contributes to debates on informal labour and the Right to the City by showing how claims to urban space are produced through everyday interdependencies rather than formal inclusion. In line with Harvey’s understanding of the Right to the City, and as reflected in South African scholarship on informal recycling, the study highlights how informal recyclers collectively remake marginal urban spaces while navigating persistent structural inequalities.</p>