Mudslide in Oso, Washington
The Oso Mudslide on 22 March 2014 results in massive destruction and over forty deaths in the rural community of Oso, Washington, which sits in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.
Regions:
waste
Sydney Tar Ponds
The Sydney Tar Ponds are a huge waste site in Nova Scotia, Canada that contains large amounts of toxic chemicals. The ponds formed in a river mouth, where steel corporations let their largely coal-based pollutants and sludge drain off for many decades.
Regions:
A Future without Waste? Zero Waste in Theory and Practice
About this issue
Is a world without waste truly achievable? The essays in this volume of RCC Perspectives discuss zero waste as a vision, as a historical concept, and as an international practice. Going beyond the motto of “reduce, reuse, recycle,” they reflect on the feasibility of creating closed material cycles and explore real-world examples of challenges and successes on the way to zero waste.
Content
The Zero Garbage Affair in Bogotá
When Gustavo Petro, then mayor of Bogotá, attempted to introduce a new zero garbage program that would allow the city’s informal recyclers to receive proper wages, he found himself in the middle of a hygienic crisis that was used by his political opponents to try to remove him from office. Garbage had become a battlefield upon which the struggle against corruption for social reform and justice was carried out.
Ways Out of the Waste Dilemma: Transforming Communities in the Global South
Inspiration for sustainable waste policies and management will likely come from countries in the Global South, where consumerism and discard-oriented production are not yet fully established, where economies are less fixated on growth, and people’s lifestyles are not yet “cocooned in the consumption bubble.” Drawing on examples of informal and cooperative recyclers in Brazil, Gutberlet argues that these workers have developed effective practices and policies supporting circular economy, sufficiency, and solidarity.
Working for Zero Waste in Germany: A Discussion across Disciplines
The participants in a roundtable discussion that took place in May 2013 at LMU’s Center for Advanced Studies draw on their collective experience in engineering, anthropology, environmental justice, and city politics, in order to explore the impact of waste, and the strategies we should, and currently do, employ as we work towards zero waste in the world.
An Impossible Ideal: The Use and Misuse of Zero Waste
Though a desirable environmental prospect, many wonder if zero waste is a realistic goal or merely a pipe dream. Starting from an analysis of the laws of thermodynamics, this article argues that it is an impossible ideal; however, along with the principles of the circular economy and reform of modern economic systems, the idea of zero waste can provide valuable insights into how we can establish a future ecological civilization.
Waste Utopias: Lessons from Socialist Europe for the Twenty-First Century
This essay examines practices in socialist Hungary in the 1950s that can be considered a historical antecedent to contemporary zero-waste programs. The experiences and challenges of implementing waste collection and reuse programs can offer lessons for us today.
Learning to Celebrate Our Human Footprint
Society’s approach to environmental protection has so far relied on certain prevailing, but perhaps specious, beliefs—that we cannot impact the environment positively, or that environmental protection is incompatible with economic growth. Braungart explores how, rather than making ineffective changes to an already broken system, it would be more beneficial to rethink that system entirely.
Cycling and Recycling. Histories of Sustainable Practices
In case studies ranging from the Early Modern secondhand trade to utopian visions of human-powered vehicles, the contributions gathered here explore the historical fortunes of bicycling and waste recycling—tracing their development over time and providing valuable context for the policy successes and failures of today.