Reframing Waste: Imagining Apocalyptic Waste Disposal in Contemporary Speculative Fiction
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: English and Creative Writing
Abstract
Waste and its disposal are inescapable features of the Anthropocene. According to World Bank, global waste is
expected to have increased by roughly 70 percent to 3.4 billion metric tons by 2050, with at least 33% of waste
being mismanaged globally. This global waste crisis leads to climate change and poses threats to the ecosystem
and public health including malaria, yellow fever, and other fatal diseases. To meet such challenges requires
monumental, concerted efforts of imagination, including a re-thinking of how waste is handled and what waste
means. My proposed Ph.D. research will explore how creative work can help us imagine possibilities of waste
disposal and purpose future models for living with waste in the Anthropocene.
My project will explore how speculative fiction combines waste with capitalist crises in the Anthropocene, while
investigating intersections and tensions among the fields of speculative fiction, waste studies and ecocriticism. My
aim is to reframe waste by focusing on its redefinition, reuse, management and symbiosis with humans in sciencefictional
scenarios, and to offer a more hopeful account of its possible future.
expected to have increased by roughly 70 percent to 3.4 billion metric tons by 2050, with at least 33% of waste
being mismanaged globally. This global waste crisis leads to climate change and poses threats to the ecosystem
and public health including malaria, yellow fever, and other fatal diseases. To meet such challenges requires
monumental, concerted efforts of imagination, including a re-thinking of how waste is handled and what waste
means. My proposed Ph.D. research will explore how creative work can help us imagine possibilities of waste
disposal and purpose future models for living with waste in the Anthropocene.
My project will explore how speculative fiction combines waste with capitalist crises in the Anthropocene, while
investigating intersections and tensions among the fields of speculative fiction, waste studies and ecocriticism. My
aim is to reframe waste by focusing on its redefinition, reuse, management and symbiosis with humans in sciencefictional
scenarios, and to offer a more hopeful account of its possible future.
