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Time for Recalibration

Apr 7, 2008

We separate whites and colors when doing laundry. We store frozen food in the freezer and everything else in the pantry or refrigerator. To recycle, we know plastics must be separated from glass, which must be separated from newspapers. We know “waste” goes in a dumpster, which eventually ends up in a landfill. However, what if the items discarded into the dumpster had more life? What if we redefined “waste,” and moreover, what we did with all of our left-over “stuff?”

There are examples around the world of people recalibrating the definition of “waste.” In the United States, Freegans “dumpster dive” for their food and other disposed consumer items. Even further along the spectrum, Dharavi slum dwellers in Mumbai, India take recycling to a whole new level by scouring the local dumps for even the smallest item that can be reused or resold. Some are rebelling against a consumer-driven, wasteful society, whereas others struggle to make a living in a society that provides little other opportunities. Both have adjusted what society defines as waste.

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