The Second Law of Ecology is that “everything must go somewhere” (Commoner 1971, 39). Commoner’s law is based on two premises: that all matter is endurable and indestructible and that nature does not produce “waste.” Put another way, while everything produced by nature will find a use somewhere in the ecosystem, human societies’ waste can have harmful consequences for the natural world and for human societies. Certain aspects of this law, however, invite a deeper look, for the implication is that the “waste” modern human societies have produced has no additional use. How, then, to think about the potential value inherent in contemporary forms of waste originating in the discard of materials like electronics? And if one considers the different types of value that reside within waste, how does that sit in relation to the risks posed to people and the environment from the global waste trade? To envision...
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August 2020
August 01 2020
Redefining Waste to Create Action: The Economic Considerations and Cultural Politics of Global Waste
Reassembling Rubbish: Worlding Electronic Waste
. By Josh
Lepawsky
. 2018
. Cambridge, MA
: MIT Press
.Waste
. Kate
O’Neill
. 2019
. Medford, MA
: Polity Press
.
Ellen E. Moore
Ellen E. Moore
Ellen Moore, a faculty member for ten years at the University of Washington Tacoma, researches the intersection of media and environmental justice. Her latest book – Journalism, Politics, and the Dakota Access Pipeline: Standing Rock and the Framing of Injustice (2019) – involves work with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to understand their perspectives on the media, politics, and the environment. Her most recent course is Ecology, Inequality, and Popular Culture, which explores the white policing of natural spaces in relation to racial representations in popular culture. She is the recipient of McKinstry’s 2019 Champion of Sustainability award and her university's Distinguished Teaching Award.
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Ellen E. Moore
Ellen Moore, a faculty member for ten years at the University of Washington Tacoma, researches the intersection of media and environmental justice. Her latest book – Journalism, Politics, and the Dakota Access Pipeline: Standing Rock and the Framing of Injustice (2019) – involves work with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to understand their perspectives on the media, politics, and the environment. Her most recent course is Ecology, Inequality, and Popular Culture, which explores the white policing of natural spaces in relation to racial representations in popular culture. She is the recipient of McKinstry’s 2019 Champion of Sustainability award and her university's Distinguished Teaching Award.
Online ISSN: 1536-0091
Print ISSN: 1526-3800
© 2020 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020
by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Global Environmental Politics (2020) 20 (3): 112–117.
Citation
Ellen E. Moore; Redefining Waste to Create Action: The Economic Considerations and Cultural Politics of Global Waste. Global Environmental Politics 2020; 20 (3): 112–117. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00570
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