Redefining Waste to Create Action: The Economic Considerations and Cultural Politics of Global Waste

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...