Wastes: a Heap of Entwined Stories

Abstract

Waste is a matter that, although dealing with it every day, we are often unaware of its broader implications: it is embroidered in a web of economic, political, and social aspects that make waste - and the act of wasting - what it is. Waste studies is a flourishing area of studies and academic research field which merges diverse interdisciplinary approaches by diving into - and shedding light on - contemporary living and interaction dynamics through the lens of waste. These related issues are often portrayed as linked to themes of environmental justice in a global scale framework. By drawing on diverse academic disciplines, including anthropology, law, environmental history and archaeology, this thesis seeks to dig into the intricate narratives woven into the fluid fabric of waste: from tackling the role of waste as a new form of colonialism and as an ingredient of the environmental turn in the seventies, through the see-saw between legal and illegal waste trade, to current and possible near future considerations on human-environment wasting relations. Each of the issues presented provides a glimpse into further research. Thoughts and supporting existent literature from various fields of knowledge are gathered based on the cues aroused during ethnographic field research in Basilicata, Southern Italy, collecting voices of otherwise unspoken stories inside the Italian borders. Stories that could be lost in the wider web despite being, as demonstrated, intrinsically interwoven in it.