Harm and Hope : How we relate to our rubbish

This paper asks the reader to engage with questions about their conceptualisation of and relationship with waste, drawing attention to the ubiquity and in/visibility of it. It considers how waste is, variously, a source of disease and danger; a material resource which is enfolded into our financial and cultural economies; and a fundamental element in the formation of self. The paper gives a brief overview of the ethical, economic and ecological issues with recycling before moving on to explore reuse and repurpose as waste management alternatives, emphasising the radical difference in favouring these processes. Finally it considers indigenous Australian approaches to rubbish, discussing the ways in which these challenge the binary between nature and waste. By muddying this distinction we can shift our thinking towards a creative, positive, compassionate understanding of the past, the material world, the place these have in the future,