A Public Sociology of Waste

160 Pages·2022·6.994 MB·English

by  Myra J. Hird

“This is essential and long-awaited reading for
sociologists interested in the ubiquitous role
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of waste in society. It rigorously demonstrates P M Y R A J . H I R D
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how and why the burden of waste is unequally
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distributed.” L
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Tora Holmberg, Uppsala University
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“In her powerful analysis and critique of waste C
‘management’, Hird illuminates the neglected IO
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socio-ethical implications of waste and our O
understanding of it.” G
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Romain Garcier, University of Lyon O
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Myra J. Hird is Full Professor Is it possible for individuals to tackle waste by S
in the School of Environmental recycling, reusing and reducing alone? T
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Studies at Queen’s University,
and an Elected Fellow of the This provocative book critically analyses
Royal Society of Canada. the widespread assumption that individuals M
and households have created our global Y
waste crisis. R
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Sociologist and waste expert Myra J. Hird J
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reveals neoliberal capitalism’s fallacy of infinite H
growth as the real culprit, and demonstrates IR
how industry and local governments work in D
tandem to deflect our attention away from the
real causes of our global waste problem.
Hird offers crucial insights into the relations
between waste and wider societal issues
including ongoing (settler) colonialism,
poverty, racism and sexism, and showcases
how sociology may provide solutions through
a ‘pubic imagination’ of waste.
ISBN 978-1-5292-0655-5
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@@polBicyrpriesssUniPress T
BristolUniversityPress O
9 781529206555
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk L
Public Sociology series
Series Editors: John Brewer, Queen’s University,
Belfast Northern Ireland and Neil McLaughlin,
McMaster University, Canada
The Public Sociology series addresses not only what sociologists do, but what
sociology is for, and focuses on the commitment to materially improving
people’s lives through understanding of the social condition. It showcases
the wide diversity of sociological research that addresses the many global
challenges that threaten the future of humankind.
Forthcoming in the series:
Critical Engagement with Public Sociology
A Perspective from the Global South
Edited by Andries Bezuidenhout, Sonwabile Mnwana and
Karl von Holdt
Out now in the series:
Erich Fromm and Global Public Sociology
Neil McLaughlin
The Public and Their Platforms
Public Sociology in an Era of Social Media
Mark Carrigan and Fatsis Lambros
Public Sociology As Educational Practice
Challenges, Dialogues and Counter-Publics
Edited by Eurig Scandrett
Find out more at
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/public-sociology
Public Sociology series
Series Editors: John Brewer, Queen’s University,
Belfast, Northern Ireland and Neil McLaughlin,
McMaster University, Canada
International editorial advisory board:
Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley, US
John Brown Childs, University of California Santa Cruz, US
Craig Calhoun, London School of Economics, UK
Frances Fox Pivan, City University of New York, US
John H. Hall, McGill University, Canada
Katie Hughes, Victoria University, Australia
Linda McKie, Durham University, UK
Ann Nilsen, University of Bergen, Norway
Elisa P. Reis, International Panel on Social Progress, Brazil
John Scott, Exeter University, UK
Ari Sitas, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Linda Woodhead, Lancaster University, UK
Find out more at
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/public-sociology
A PUBLIC SOCIOLOGY

OF WASTE
Myra J. Hird
First published in Great Britain in 2022 by
Bristol University Press
University of Bristol
1– 9 Old Park Hill
Bristol
BS2 8BB
UK
t: + 44 (0)117 954 5940
e: bup- [email protected]
Details of international sales and distribution partners are available at bristoluniversitypress.co.uk
© Bristol University Press 2022
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-5292-0655-5 hardcover
ISBN 978-1-5292-0659-3 ePub
ISBN 978-1-5292-0658-6 ePdf
The right of Myra J. Hird to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise without the prior permission of Bristol University Press.
Every reasonable effort has been made to obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted material. If,
however, anyone knows of an oversight, please contact the publisher.
The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the author and
not of the University of Bristol or Bristol University Press. The University of Bristol and Bristol
University Press disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any
material published in this publication.
Bristol University Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender,
race, disability, age and sexuality.
Cover design: Andrew Corbett
Front cover image: Andrew Corbett
Bristol University Press uses environmentally responsible print partners
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Contents

List of Figures vi
Acknowledgements vii
Series Editors’ Preface ix
1 The Public Problem of Waste 1
2 Framing Waste 14
3 The Public Problem of Recycling 28
4 The Public Problem of Plastics 49
5 The Public Problem of PPE Waste and Being Prepared 65
6 A Public Sociology of Waste 83
Appendix 99
Notes 109
References 111
Index 137
v
List of Figures

3.1 The waste hierarchy 30
3.2 Environmental impacts of recycled materials 38
3.3 The growing gap between available metals and minerals and 40
current and growing demand
3.4 Ontario municipalities waste diversion x per capita 42
waste generation
4.1 Global primary energy consumption by fossil fuel source 58
measured in terawatt-hours (TWh)
6.1 Anamnèse 1+ 1, Alain- Martin Richard. Frédéric- Back Park 84
vi
Acknowledgements

It is always the case that many people provide the cognitive and emotional
sustenance that I need to write. This is especially the case for A Public
Sociology of Waste, as I wrote much of it during the COVID-1 9 pandemic,
bunkered down with my family during a long lockdown. First of all, I thank
John D. Brewer for inviting me to contribute to this book series. I also
thank my editor, Shannon Kneis, for her unwavering support and flexibility,
especially through the (continuing) pandemic. I thank the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding for some of the
case studies described in this book. An earlier version of Chapter 3 appears
in Canada’s Waste Flows (2021, McGill-Q ueen’s University Press) and is used
with permission. An earlier version of Chapter 5 appears in Hird, M.J. and
Riha, J. ‘Prepping for the [insert here] apocalypse and wasting the future’,
in Z. Gille and J. Lepawsky (eds) Handbook of Waste Studies, New York and
London: Routledge, 2021, pp 305– 21 and is used with permission. I wrote
Chapter 4 with Jacob Riha’s assistance. An earlier version of the placental
research in the Appendix appears in Yoshizawa, R. and Hird, M.J. (2019)
‘Schrödinger’s placenta: determining placentas as (not)waste’, Environment
and Planning E: Nature and Space 3(1): 1– 17 and is used with permission.
Figure 3.2 ‘Recycled content, different material’ is reprinted with permission
from Vendries, J., Sauer, B., Hawkins, T.R., Allaway, D., Canepa, P., Rivin,
J. and Mistry, M. (2020) ‘The significance of environmental attributes as
indicators of the life cycle environmental impacts of packaging and food
service ware’, Environmental Science & Technology, 54: 5356– 64. Figure 3.3,
‘The growing gap between available metals and minerals and current and
growing demand’. Figure 3.4, ‘Per capita waste generation and diversion rates
in Ontario’ is reprinted with permission from Scott Lougheed. Figure 4.2,
‘Global fossil fuel consumption’. Figure 6.1, ‘Anamnèse 1+ 1, Alain- Martin
Richard. Frédéric- Back Park’, is reprinted with the artist’s permission.
I tend to think of research as walking along a winding path, often with
few signposts, and so I very much appreciated the Zoom meetings that
I regularly had with my graduate students during this time. I thank Jacob
Riha for his work on plastics waste and the prepping phenomenon. I am also
grateful to Hillary Predko, who provided excellent copyediting assistance,
vii
A PUBLIC SOCIOLOGY OF WASTE
and to Micky Renders, Aja Rowden and Gabrielle Dee. Scholars whose
work I greatly admire – Kathryn Yusoff, Romain Garcier, Laurence Rocher,
Judy Haschenburger, Sabrina Perić, Peter van Wyck, Tora Holmberg and
Kyla Tienhaara – have all walked with me during the course of this research,
making it entirely more enjoyable. And I thank Christophe Merle. I dedicate
this book to Inis and Eshe who have let me share their paths.
viii
Series Editors’ Preface

Sociology is a highly reflexive subject. All scholarly disciplines examine
themselves reflexively in terms of theory and practice as they apply what
the sociologist of science Robert Merton once called ‘organised scepticism’.
Sociology adds to this constant internal academic debate a vigorous, almost
obsessive, concern about its very purpose and rationale. This attentiveness
to founding principles shows itself in significant intellectual interest in the
‘canon’ of great thinkers and its history as a discipline, in vigorous debate
about the boundaries of the discipline, and in considerable inventiveness
in developing new areas and subfields of sociology. This fascination with
the purpose and social organization of the discipline is also reflected in the
debate about sociology’s civic engagements and commitments, its level of
activism and its moral and political purposes.
This echoes the contemporary discussion about the idea of public
sociology. ‘Public sociology’ is a new phrase for a long- standing debate
about the purpose of sociology that began with the discipline’s origins. It
is therefore no coincidence that students in the 21st century, when being
introduced to sociology for the first time, wrestle with ideas formulated
centuries before, for while social change has rendered some of these
ideas redundant, particularly the social Darwinism of the 19th century
and functionalism in the 1950s, familiarity with these earlier debates and
frameworks is the lens into understanding the purpose, value and prospect
of sociology as key thinkers conceived it in the past. The ideas may have
changed but the moral purpose has not.
A contentious discipline is destined to argue continually about its past.
Some see the roots of sociology grounded in medieval scholasticism, in 18th-
century Scotland, with the Scottish Enlightenment’s engagement with the
social changes wrought by commercialism, in conservative reactions to the
Enlightenment or in 19th-c entury encounters with the negative effects of
industrialization and modernization. Contentious disciplines, however, are
condemned to always live in their past if they do not also develop a vision
for their future; a sense of purpose and a rationale that takes the discipline
forward. Sociology has always been forward looking, offering an analysis
and diagnosis of what C. Wright Mills liked to call the human condition.
ix