Lily Baum Pollans - Resisting Garbage: The Politics of Waste Management in American Cities

Resisting Garbage

The Politics of Waste Management in American Cities

LILY BAUM POLLANS

University of Texas Press

Austin

Copyright 2021 by the University of Texas Press

All rights reserved

First edition, 2021

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Pollans, Lily Baum, author.

Title: Resisting garbage : the politics of waste management in American cities / Lily Baum Pollans.

Description: First edition. | Austin : University of Texas Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers:

LCCN 2021007055

ISBN 978-1-4773-2370-0 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-4773-2371-7 (library ebook)

ISBN 978-1-4773-2372-4 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Refuse and refuse disposalUnited States. | Recycling (Waste, etc.)United States. | Refuse and refuse disposalWashington (State)Seattle. | Recycling (Waste, etc.)Washington (State)Seattle. | Refuse and refuse disposal--MassachusettsBoston. | Recycling (Waste, etc.)MassachusettsBoston.

Classification: LCC HD4483 .P645 2021 | DDC 363.72/850973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021007055

doi:10.7560/323700

For my parents

Contents

Abbreviations

Introduction

I was sitting in a friends kitchen in Seattle, Washington, in 2015. It was the first time Id been in her sweet little home, and Id brought her a set of candles as a house gift. Id hastily wrapped the candles with some red cotton ribbon Id found in my luggage. After graciously inhaling the beeswax and finding a place for the candles, she paused, looking uncertain. She was holding the ribbon in her hand, hovering anxiously over three bins in the corner. Her gaze shifted between a nearly empty trash bin, an almost full recycling bin, and the overflowing organics bucket on the counter next to her. She glanced up at me ruefully for a moment and then dropped the ribbon into the trash. When in doubt, throw it out, she said.