Garbage and waste studies attract only niche attention in spatial research, economic, social or urban geography. Despite the growing interest in sustainability studies and the related goals to reduce, reuse and/or recycle products of all origins in a successful circular economy, spatial criteria as explanatory measures of waste generation, waste origin, waste governance or waste behavior have no major relevance in the established waste sciences. This results in starting points for geographical perspectives that can cover the spatial meta- to the case study micro-level, both natural and social science methods and findings.
The following themes can be derived:
(a) Different experiences on waste fractions such as scrap metal, electrical goods, building materials or food from sources of origin such as agriculture, mining, industry, retail and private households; identification of waste chains that can mean disposal on one actor side and after-use potentials on the other actor side.
b) Identification and operation of regions and labor markets specializing in waste recovery and recycling («waste districts»; e.g. plastic waste, electronic waste, ship scrapping).
c) Structure of globally operating waste management providers – what strategic power do they have in competing for waste management goods on a national or international level?
d) Behavioral patterns of private households for waste disposal in spatial comparison – why does waste separation work in some regions, cities or districts and not in others? What are the dangers to municipalities from illegal waste dumping (health, groundwater)? What are the answers to these questions?
e) Waste governance in national and supranational comparison: How does the discourse on waste fractions (e.g. on the topic of food waste) develop via relevant actor groups and (digital) information channels? Are there global solutions at all or only regionalized and «adapted» solutions?
f) What are the social dependencies on waste? Who lives off «waste» as an economic or social good (e.g., in terms of food bank system experiences).
Diverse theoretical and methodological approaches from economics (new economic geography), sociology or psychology (behavior studies) etc. are therefore conceivable in order to not only highlight the relevance of waste studies via regionalized case studies, but also to grasp the limits to the transferability of waste «solutions» on a regional and global scale. Language: EnglishSession type: presentations

Juergens Ulrich (1)
(1) University of Kiel, Department of Geography, Ludewig-Meyn-St 8, 24118 Kiel, Germany

 
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