Waste Work

I deal with waste. Quite a bit of it. I do litter pick, and because of where I live there is quite a bit of it to pick up.

I also pick up things that I think I could salvage. This is two folding chairs from someone’s hard rubbish. And here they are in parts rescued for re use or recycling.

And these are the tools I used for the job! I will use that canvas (which was once black!!) and the wood will become stakes. The metal and hard plastic will be recycled. And finally, a small ode to my tools. I didn’t realise I’d need to use the hacksaw quite so much for this job!

This is a bag that appeared in a shopping trolley full of all kinds of things. Some were taken or thrown on the ground almost immediately. I sorted some into rubbish and recycling. This, I took apart.

The webbing and zippers and such (top right) can’t be saved, but a lot of the component canvas parts I can use. Next stop, the laundry.

I also look for specific kinds of waste I think I can use. I pulled this enormous billboard sized vinyl banner (it was a chemist advertising billboard) out of a dumpster because I thought I could use it for a climate action banner. Then I got a request for a game of Twister (do you remember Twister?) on a climate action theme. So here I am sewing screen printed patches onto it for its next life as a game. There is a LOT of it left for other uses.

Our household participated in some PhD research about waste reduction and the circular economy. The researcher conceptualised these kinds of activities as “waste work” and had a lot of very interesting questions about who does it and how it is shared. I have questions of my own about the fact that I feel drawn to bring home old folding chairs and deconstruct them! However–on a global level, most waste work is done by people in the global South, and by people of colour living in poverty. I don’t think I’m too special to shoulder some of what can be done in my corner of town.