Waste is everywhere. Every year, human beings produce more than two billion tons of it; an astronomical quantity that contributes to forging, in the middle of the ocean, a fifth continent, and to invading the deserts of the countries of the South with mountains of clothes, unsold items and wasted products.
In the test Trashlocene. Chronicles of the era of wastethe Italian historian Marco Armiero analyses this global trend of “throwing to the winds” from a sociological perspective, thus setting aside the production of waste itself and its consequences on the planet and ecosystems, focusing instead on the socio-economic system that supports it.
The essayist, also a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, thus contrasts the term “poubellocene” with that, debated for fifteen years, both in the sociological and geological fields, of “anthropocene”, a catch-all term designating the era characterized by the significant influence of human beings on geology and ecosystems, thus offering a counterweight to its universalist dimension.
According to the concept of the “Poubellocene” developed by the author, it would therefore be waste that constitutes the characteristic geological marker of our era, not so much by its omnipresence as by its role as vectors of “socio-ecological relationships dedicated to [re] produce exclusion and inequalities”.
To explain his point, he gives the example of the sinking of the Titanic. “On April 14, 1912, when the Titanic collided with an iceberg, whether they traveled first or third class would determine which passengers would survive.” According to the author, today’s world would still be divided between those who get by easily, and the rest, condemned to a struggle for survival. “Almost literally, the metaphor of the Titanic shows that social classes matter in the Anthropocene.”
“Toxicity Stories”
By dissecting the stratigraphy of power and toxicity that makes up our environment, Marco Armiero demonstrates that the maintenance of the privileges of a minority is based on an othering resulting from the senseless production of waste – both physical and theoretical -, certain places and memories being considered disposable.
In this short, clear-cut book, the essayist explores both the role of dystopian ecofictions on our imagination and the stories of toxicity that are built at the heart of major epidemics. From Naples, Italy, to Agbogbloshie, Ghana, via the United States and Brazil, he uncovers the “narratives of toxicity” that obliterate a facet of history, make marginal realities invisible, or trivialize injustices.
Although very theoretical, Trashlocene offers a multidisciplinary and, above all, very concrete perspective on the ecosystems that accentuate the socio-ecological crisis in which we are immersed, and on the community solutions that exist and can be imagined to try to get out of it. The essay deserves a sequel, because we would have liked to also read the author’s analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic and the stories of toxicity that have emerged from it and continue to deepen inequalities and conceal certain discourses. A proposal that will certainly be a landmark.