Resisting Garbage

"Lily Pollans's Resisting Garbage presents a new theory for understanding practices of waste removal and recycling in American cities, one that is grounded in the close observation of case studies but broadly applicable to many American cities today. The first part of the manuscript delineates the contours of current waste practices, and in particular the evolution of what Pollans calls the "weak recycling waste regime" of the United States. This "regime," which currently dominates American cities, "prioritizes hygiene, sanitation, and efficiency," is defined by unregulated consumption and production, and "allows limited post-consumer recycling of a few materials as a way to quell consumers' environmental anxiety." The second part of the study looks closely at the waste management stories of Seattle and Boston over the last forty years. As Pollans shows, these two cities began at around the same place in the 1980s, but followed radically different paths"--