Waste. A Reader About the Global Routes of Rubbish

What does waste have to tell us about our world? In what ways are the global economy and the production and recycling of waste connected? Who profits from waste, and who is harmed by it? And what utopian ideas can waste engender? The Global North generates huge quantities of personal and industrial waste, yet the bulk of it ends up in the Global South, where waste is reused, processed further, or simply dumped. As a result, waste—along with the onward trajectory it follow —remains out of the public eye in the places it is created. Published in conjunction with the exhibition Waste, the reader delves into its themes with interdisciplinary essays by scientists and artists, examples of best practice, and reflections on the show and the process of developing it with the exhibition’s critical friends.