Metropolitics

Reconsidering Wasteways from Boston to Seattle

Lisa Jean Moore — 2022-02-01T06:00:00Z

Throughout the Covid‑19 pandemic, with disposable masks and endless testing, garbage proliferates. It is extremely difficult to resist our own participation in creating more single use trash. Fortunately, Lily Baum Pollans' book, Resisting Garbage: The Politics of Waste Management in American Cities, is an excellent analysis of our individual and collective consumptive habits that produce waste. Through her comparison of two different American cities, Pollans offers incisive commentary on the

- Reviews / waste, waste management, United States, Boston, Seattle, recycling

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

Lily Baum Pollans — 2019-06-11T05:00:00Z

Recycling and composting are hot topics. Lily Baum Pollans argues that Boston's changing approach to waste management represents a more radical shift than some might think.
In 2018, the city of Boston banned plastic bags and launched a zero-waste initiative. In doing so, Boston joined a growing list of cities using solid-waste management to advance sustainability and climate goals by closing material loops and reducing consumption. Despite recent setbacks in the global recycling market, these

- Essays / United States, Boston, environment, waste, waste management, recycling, sanitation, hygienism

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

Sabine Bognon & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-11-09T06:00:00Z

Inspired by the study of living ecosystems, research into the notion of urban metabolism seeks to break with the linear process—extract, produce, throw away—of resource consumption. This means reducing the amount of materials used, energy expended and waste produced, in order to conserve natural resources. Roberto D'Arienzo uses this concept to examine the case of Naples in Italy.
In Métabolismes urbains, Roberto D'Arienzo publishes the results of his PhD thesis (defended in 2015), retracing

- Reviews / urban planning, Italy, waste, sustainable urban planning, hygienism, urban technical networks, wasteland, Naples, recycling, urban metabolism