This past set of readings really made me realize how waste is not just a physical problem — it’s deeply political. Waste can be used to challenge oppressive systems by making failure visible. In Sarah Moore’s article on Oaxaca, waste became a symbol of resistance. When the government stopped collecting garbage during political protests, the […]
Personal Reflection: Waste Rebellions and Waste Utopias. Read More »
Learning about the circular economy in this class has shifted my own way of thinking about the issues of waste, value, and the systems we operate in. For most of my life, I was used to the idea that things were made, consumed, and discarded in a tidy and linear process. The circular economy flips
Rethinking Waste: A Personal Reflection on the Circular Economy. Read More »
Thinking about waste through the lens of ‘distancing’ and ‘recycling’ has made me realize just how easy it is to detach ourselves from the consequences of what we throw away. Before taking this class, I never really thought about what was happening to waste after being put in a bin. Recycling is for many ‘convenient’
The Illusion of Recycling Read More »
When I first think about the term ‘disposability’, what comes to mind is usually single-use items such as plastic utensils, paper cups, or packaging that’s used once and then thrown away. But as I’ve learned in class, disposability goes beyond objects. It’s a mindset shaped by our political and economic systems, where both things and
Personal Reflection on Disposability. Read More »
As I reflect on colonialism, pollution, and productivity, I am struck by how interconnected these forces are and how their impacts still determine the world we live in today. First, colonialism was as much a quest to conquer land as to extract resources and exploit labor to fuel systems of production (that privileged profit over
Colonialism, pollution, productivity. Read More »
The way modern cities handle waste and wastewater really showcases both our creativity and our disregard for the environment. Take ‘sanitary’ landfills, for instance—they’re a step up from open dumps, but they still have significant flaws. While they do a better job of containing waste and preventing immediate contamination, they also contribute to long-term pollution
Reflection on ‘Sanitary’ landfills, wastewater, and city structure. Read More »
Waste workers often perform a job most people take for granted. Every day, they go through the enormous volumes of trash, recyclables, and discarded material society produces, ensuring our spaces are clean and habitable. Although they are an essential part of our infrastructure, they are largely underappreciated and exposed to huge health and safety risks.
Personal Reflection on Waste Workers. Read More »
Looking at the amount of waste in the contemporary world, it’s striking how disposable everything has become—food, clothing, electronics and many more. In fact, nowadays, it has become very easy to just throw something you don’t want anymore. Waste seems to be the product of a convenience- and profit-based culture where planned obsolescence is the
The High Cost of Convenience: Waste, Repair, and Responsibility Read More »
I was always told not to waste food when I was growing up, but the reality of the world today—where food is abundant and convenience is key—allowed me to overlook it. Over time, however, I caught myself with the amount of food I wound up throwing away, ranging from old food that was left behind
Rethinking Food Waste: A Personal Reflection Read More »
Shit is something we all produce, but yet we don’t really talk about it. Before taking this class, I never really had a conversation on “shit” or even thought of “shit”. But now that I am thinking of it, I believe that since we were kids, we were told it is disgusting, shameful, something to
Shit, shame, And Seeing Things Differently. Read More »