A Cultural History of Waste Disposal

This book analyzes landfill sites in New York City, Greater Toronto, and Tel Aviv, emphasizing the global scale of issues concerning waste disposal and park redevelopments. For scholars, researchers, and academics studying waste studies, the environment, cities, and sustainable development, as well as for policymakers and eco artists.

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This book offers a historical analysis of the landfill sites in New York City, Greater Toronto, and Greater Tel Aviv, and uses them as case studies to emphasize the international and global scale of issues concerning waste disposal and park redevelopments.
New York, Toronto, and Tel Aviv are currently redeveloping giant landfills into parks, with much booster fanfare. The park redevelopments may be seen as an attempt to erase or assuage the decades of problematic waste-disposal policy that led to the creation of such large landfills. Booster rhetoric underscores this point—such as promoting how the parks will be a “green lung” for the city. This book contextualises these redevelopments by offering a historical analysis, providing the context from which to better understand recent, current, and potential issues and developments. The book goes on to analyse the rhetoric and media coverage surrounding former-waste sites becoming park-redevelopments, including how cities use art to promote their image and gain cultural relevance. By engaging with both the works of waste historians and literature on waste and discard studies, this book provides theoretical models for analysing the role of power in municipal systems, as well as human and ecological impacts on waste. The book concludes with analysis of the features necessary for landfill-parks to be successful.
This book will be useful for scholars, researchers and academics studying waste studies, the environment, cities, and sustainable development, as well as for policymakers and environmental/eco artists.