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    Building utopia with tomorrow’s trash: formal and informal infrastructures for organics recycling in New York City

    Author
    Schaffer, Guy Drumheller
    View/Open
    177500_Schaffer_rpi_0185E_10968.pdf (4.256Mb)
    Other Contributors
    Kinchy, Abby J.; Breyman, Steve; Fortun, Michael; High, Kathryn;
    Date Issued
    2016-08
    Subject
    Science and technology studies
    Degree
    PhD;
    Terms of Use
    This electronic version is a licensed copy owned by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. Copyright of original work retained by author.;
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13015/1758
    Abstract
    In this dissertation, I describe the interactions between informal infrastructures for community composting and micro-hauling, and the formal organics recycling system implemented by the City. I do this through a detailed consideration of three systems: citywide organics collection, community compost, and the not-for-profit hauling service, BK ROT. In answering my central question—how do informal infrastructures create changes in formal systems?—I also describe the way that the field of organics recycling in New York City has reflected broader trends in neoliberal waste management, and how these kinds of shifts both limit the possibilities of waste management and create opportunities for alternative systems. Responding to authors and policy-makers who suggest that these small local systems often fail to make material differences in waste systems, I pay close attention to the role of affect and embodied experience of community compost, and suggest that community compost projects cultivate feelings of hope and even utopia, and that these experiences have a role in changing waste systems.; In 2013, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg proclaimed that the New York City Department of Sanitation was taking on “recycling’s final frontier” as it began to implement a curbside organics recycling program, collecting from 33,000 households in Staten Island, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. New York City has also—for some time—been home to a wide array of community composting projects that have allowed residents to compost food scraps within city limits while also creating public space, community activities, and healthy soil for gardens and street trees. As composting has entered the mainstream as a waste management strategy, a variety of entrepreneurs and activists have even started paid micro-hauling services for organic waste, which often function at the edges of legality. The changes taking place in the waste system of New York City aren’t unique: since 1995, hundreds of cities in the U.S. have implemented municipal composting programs.;
    Description
    August 2016; School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
    Department
    Dept. of Science and Technology Studies;
    Publisher
    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
    Relationships
    Rensselaer Theses and Dissertations Online Collection;
    Access
    Restricted to current Rensselaer faculty, staff and students. Access inquiries may be directed to the Rensselaer Libraries.;
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    • RPI Theses Online (Complete)

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