schaffer_hegemonic


 * Memo 23: Hegemonic Backdrops**

Waste is a slippery thing (and not just because of the oily residues on that slick plastic bag in which it leaves the house): it is something that is you want to get rid of once you create it. Add to that the fact that it is hard to see once you get rid of it (hidden in transfer stations, buried underground; burnt, liquefied, or shipped to China) and the “another man’s treasure” mentality that transforms it into toothbrushes and flowerpots, and the concept becomes downright protean.

Perhaps the overarching framework that we’ve received from sanitation work at the beginning of the 20th century is that waste is a social bad (and at the same time a necessary product of urban life), and that it is the duty of the state to transport it from the home to the dump or landfill. Within this framework, things you do not want, be they mundane things (candy wrappers, cat litter), the occasional confusing not-quite-safe-to-throw-away thing (fluorescent bulbs, batteries), or even potentially useful things (old furniture…) have a place where they should go (the curbside) and a (usually unseen) person who can take them once they get there. There is a bottomless pit at the end of your driveway, and you can call the DPW to figure out when it gets picked up.

Countering this “bottomless pit” framework is another set of frames that make wasting into an undesirable habit. These are numerous: the variety of environmental frames, in which waste increases demand for natural resources, pollutes the land, blemishes the wilderness, or generates methane. There’s a depression-era or pioneer frame (in the US, perhaps different origins elsewhere?) in which waste is just a different kind of resource that you can manage in order to run an efficient kitchen. There’s an economic frame in which bottles have a five to ten cent return on them and (in certain states) you get charged for landfill trash by the pound. Somehow, these frames interact to produce conscientious wasting subjects that feel bad about generating waste, good about sorting it, and better about reusing it. In these frames, packaging is a source either of shame or arts and crafts supplies.

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Pinning down a hegemonic framing of waste is tricky. In the most basic sense, waste is undesirable, voluminous, and has no forthcoming utility. Citizens produce waste in an excessive sort of way that can be controlled by government (or by private industry). Citizens can/should regulate their production of waste for environmental or economic reasons. Government should pick up waste and transport it to government landfills or incinerators, failing that, some large waste management corporation will do that. Once you produce waste, it is easy to get rid of.