In our fictional readings during the past week, it was very interesting to see these perceptions of what waste could be imagined to be like. In the Asimov reading, the Strikebreaker, a society had managed to completely reuse all waste by breaking it down fully and remaking something out of that. This society lived on an extremely isolated planet, which could not support its own needs. To solve this problem, they invented some sort of system that would reuse all material so that they would need minimal external support. However, despite this impressive invention, in this world there was only one man who was able to run these machines, and he did not want to be doing this job due to the poor societal treatment he received by association. Despite the fact that a zero-waste society does sound nice, there were so many social consequences in this society, and although it was fiction, it was very moving. The Ragusnik, the name of the waste handler, was so secluded from society that nobody would speak, touch, or even look at him. In the second reading, News from Nowhere, by William Morris, a different perspective of futuristic waste was examined. In this world, there was minimal waste because everyone did the jobs that they enjoyed doing because of their passion, not anything else. But, with these passion-driven workers, all products were extremely well-made, and there was minimal overconsumption in the world due to the quality and multi-use items that were being made. Despite their ideal waste-practices, it seems that not everything is utopia-like in these communities, which is a good reflection of real life. Now, we do not all have an equal burden of our own waste practices, as many communities are affected very differently. Even in these “ideal” worlds, there are still many other issues which need to be addressed, which is likely to be accurate for our future as it is now.
In these two worlds, there were very different perspectives of futuristic waste solutions, which were very interesting to read about. Although both were fiction, it would be interesting to see what would happen in our world if we had ever managed either of these types of waste practices. Many scientific inventions have been inspired by fiction, and it would be interesting to see what could happen if someone took inspiration from these stories. Though I don’t know how realistic or plausible these solutions would or could be, it is definitely an interesting perspective to explore, as it shows that anyone can help try to come up with solutions for our waste crisis, not just overqualified professionals. Creativity is a great solution for many problems, and more and more perspectives on these can always bring up different solutions and problems associated with these issues. Our current culture of single-use items is extremely wasteful and is not a sustainable practice, as it is extremely bad for the environment in so many ways. Both by landfills and waste accumulation and also factory production of items release many harmful chemicals, emissions, and more into the environment, and it is crucial to look towards a different method for our industries. Whether we come by this by creative inspiration or scientific research, it doesn’t matter, as long as we are able to help reduce this problem soon, because this is not a sustainable way to live on our planet.
It is interesting how these stories remind us that solutions to waste are complex and need to consider both environmental and social factors. It’s fascinating to think how creativity and fiction could inspire real-world changes in how we handle waste, especially in a culture so dependent on single-use products.