waste

From the Field

Closing the Loop or Looping Close By?

Marine Frantz & Gabriel Renault - 7 February 2023

Marine Frantz and Gabriel Renault explore the spatial dimension of the circular economy, particularly in regard to...

Debates

The Slow Violence of Planned Obsolescence

Elise Mason - 20 September 2022

Elise Mason critiques planned obsolescence as a form of slow violence. She argues for an ethic of care, rooted in...

From the Field

Power in the Periphery: Waste Conflict and Resistance in Periurban Kerala

Ashish Prabhakar - 6 September 2022

Ashish Prabhakar analyzes one Indian village’s fight against a city waste processing plant in 2011–2012, illustrating...

Reviews

Disposability in the City: A Review of Waste Worlds

Lily Baum Pollans - 5 July 2022

Lily Pollans reviews Jacob Doherty’s Waste Worlds: Inhabiting Kampala’s Infrastructures of Disposability, which shows...

From the Field

Starve the Beast: Community-Owned and Community-Controlled Composting as an Alternative to Incineration in Baltimore

Nicole Fabricant - 31 May 2022

Nicole Fabricant documents organizing efforts in Baltimore, led by youth of color, against a trash-to-energy...

From the Field

The Spectacle of Reuse: Recirculating Urban Salvage at Pittsburgh’s Construction Junction

Susan M. Ross - 29 April 2022

Susan M. Ross examines a building-materials reuse center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, arguing that it is an important...

Series

Urban Wastes, Present and Future

Lily Baum Pollans - 29 April 2022

Lily Pollans guest-edits this series for Metropolitics that focuses on the various ways in which waste is part of the...

Reviews

Reconsidering Wasteways from Boston to Seattle

Lisa Jean Moore - 1 February 2022

Throughout the Covid‑19 pandemic, with disposable masks and endless testing, garbage proliferates. It is extremely...

From the Field

Who Cleans Paris? Garbage Collectors in Their Own Words

Coline Ferrant & Marie Mourad & translated by Oliver Waine - 21 June 2019

Who are Paris’s garbage collectors? Coline Ferrant and Marie Mourad highlight the diverse working conditions covered...

Essays

From non-planning to cutting-edge policy: the transformation of waste management in Boston since the 1980s

Lily Baum Pollans - 11 June 2019

Recycling and composting are hot topics. Lily Baum Pollans argues that Boston’s changing approach to waste management...

Reviews

Recyclable City or Disposable City? A Century of Urban Waste in Naples

Sabine Bognon & translated by Oliver Waine - 9 November 2018

Inspired by the study of living ecosystems, research into the notion of urban metabolism seeks to break with the...

Reviews

Cities transformed by hygienism: 100 years of local innovation

Sabine Barles & translated by Oliver Waine - 27 March 2015

Hygiene is a “battle”, and the “hygienist revolution” of the 19th and early 20th centuries transformed our urban...

Debates

Water, sanitation, energy, waste: the dawn of the network-free city?

Sylvain Petitet & translated by Oliver Waine - 18 April 2012

Negative externalities, changes in society and technological innovation all call into question the industrial model...

Closing the Loop or Looping Close By?

The Slow Violence of Planned Obsolescence

Power in the Periphery: Waste Conflict and Resistance in Periurban Kerala

Disposability in the City: A Review of Waste Worlds

Starve the Beast: Community-Owned and Community-Controlled Composting as an Alternative to Incineration in Baltimore

The Spectacle of Reuse: Recirculating Urban Salvage at Pittsburgh’s Construction Junction

Urban Wastes, Present and Future

Reconsidering Wasteways from Boston to Seattle

Who Cleans Paris? Garbage Collectors in Their Own Words

From non-planning to cutting-edge policy: the transformation of waste management in Boston since the 1980s

Recyclable City or Disposable City? A Century of Urban Waste in Naples

Cities transformed by hygienism: 100 years of local innovation

Water, sanitation, energy, waste: the dawn of the network-free city?

Series

Featured

Covid-19 Transformed New York’s Destination Food Markets

Moving Inside City Limits: The Urban Mobility of Undocumented Youth

Filming Ethnic Diversity in New York

Looking Inward, Across the Border

The Political Aesthetics of Drag

Disarm the Police

Other resources online

“Our hallway’s big enough to play football in!” The council housing...

Saudi Arabia: How is Mobility Being Transformed in the Oil Kingdom?

Transport for Suburbia: Beyond the Automobile Age (Paul Mees)

Geopolitics and Electric Vehicles: The Rise of Climate Protectionism

One Way to Fight Rising Food Prices: Public Grocery Stores

The Quiet Power of Car-Free Neighborhoods

Partners