ENV 345 - Politics of Waste

Waste is often understood as a technical problem, one that requires the application of good science and innovative technologies to address effectively. Throughout this course, we will query that assumption through an examination of how waste is categorized, how it shapes societies, how it is mis/managed, how it is a part of our everyday lives, and how it fits into our value systems. We will expand our understandings of waste by examining theories of waste and waste infrastructures, acknowledging how both are “drenched” in politics, enrolling and enacting political agendas, participating in the transformation of nature into resources/waste, and justifying forms of control or negligence over those peoples, places, and objects categorized as “waste.” Finally, we will pay attention to cases of environmental injustice in the U.S. and the Global South and query how a focus on waste indicates blind spots and new directions for a growing environmental justice movement, as we explore emerging technologies for better waste management.

Satisfies Social and Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies Justice, Equality and Community requirement.