When S. first came to the CTCC I asked her, "what do you do with rubbish at Jeju Island?" (South Korea) This question actually came to my mind not only because tourist islands often have a waste problem due to limited space/infrastructure, but also because I miss heard "treisure island", which doesn't sound like a dirty place, does it? Anyway, she looked at me puzzled by my absurd question and answered with a grin: „into the waste bin, what else?“.
Well yes, in “real life”, waste is not a topic (at least as long as you can do what you always do). And as soon as people like my self start thinking about it, it gets highly complicated. No, waste is not just what you through away, it is much more: it has cultural significance, you get rid of something and define yourself through that, you perform this act, it shows your relation to the material world, etc. etc.
I wonder where this complication of things brings us to. And honestly I am a little afraid of going too far. E.g. I would argue that waste is a problem for the tourist gaze. On the other hand a few weeks ago I found this waste in Manchester (in a tourist spot), and I don’t care about it at all!
Manchester, 28th of October 2007
1 comment:
In real life waste becomes a topic when the bin is missing. Just consider the British train stations and airports. I never know where to put my coffee-to-cup there.
Another story is that of a flat I lived in. When I moved in, I did not know how the waste-disposal actually worked. In my home-town we have different bins for paper, glass, plastic, organic and the rest (the real waste?). Not in this town: the one for plastic was missing. I was desperately looking for one, but could not find it. So I put my plastic-waste into the rest-waste-bin. Bad mistake! One day I found a sheet of paper in my mail-box telling me not to do it, but to separate my waste. Sadly, the anonymous writer did not tell me, where to put my plastic-waste. It took me some days of research until I found out, that I had to get special plastic sacks which were recollected once a week. So waste is not easy. Not even for people.
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