War on Waste?: The Politics of Waste and Recycling in Post-War Britain, 1950–1975

Abstract

(London, The New Press, 2005

The War on Waste: using urban history to inspire behavioural change

“…The decades after the Second World War saw a distinct change in attitudes as wastefulness became an accepted part of an increasingly consumer-orientated society. 45 The composition and management of our waste is also very different from that produced by previous generations. Most obviously, the inexorable rise of plastic has radically altered the waste stream, with around five million tonnes used in the United Kingdom each year (less than one third of which is currently recycled).…”

Waste and postsocialism in Estonia: Becoming European through the management of rubbish

“…However, the concept of environmental awareness was quite new and practices of recycling were based on a different notion of value and use of waste than due to ecological considerations. Furthermore, we could draw some historical comparisons here with other contexts, as for instance Maoist/post-Mao China and wartime/post-war Britain, whereby new forms of waste management were introduced as a means of reusing resources in times of strife, playing then a role in building a sense of community and ownership, and as a morale-boosting exercise – rather than for explicitly environmental reasons (Cooper, 2009).…”

Waste and ‘Everyday Environmentalism’ in Modern Britain

“…Technology played a crucial role for Lefebvre in the transformation of social space and everyday life (Elden, 2004: 185). Late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Britain, along with other industrialized nations, experienced a transformation in the everyday practices and technologies of refuse disposal (Cooper, 2009;Cooper and Bulmer, 2012). At the same time, everyday practices became the subject of intense disputes between experts and a wider populace over the health risks and environmental impacts of refuse disposal.…”