Explore By Thematic Area
How does waste shape, cultural, social, economic, governance and environmental systems?
Waste is an inevitable and unavoidable condition of the 21st Century and a complex problem we cannot fully solve. This theme explores how the identities, relationships and meanings of waste change through space and time, and how living with waste - its heterogeneity, risks, uncertainties, inequalities and possibilities - shapes future lives, living systems, landscapes, and livelihoods in diverse, novel and unequal ways.
Current projects:
Where Waste Goes: The Political Economy of Informal Disposal, Queen Mary Business School
Waste and Purity in the Polar Regions, Department of Sociology, Politics, and International Relations
The Birmingham Bin Strike: Waste Politics in Austerity Britain, Department of Geography and Environmental Science
Deaccelerating Fast Fashion with Young People, School of the Arts, Comparative Literature
Living with Gulls: Modelling how our Waste Shapes the Lives of Gulls and People, School of Mathematical Sciences
Waste Landscapes: Material Worlds and Cultural Imaginaries, Department of Geography and Environmental Science
Theorising War Waste: Pollution, Weaponisation, and the Military, Department of Sociology, Politics, and International Relations
Unwasting Lives in Fossil Modernity, School of the Arts, Comparative Literature
The Science of Waste: Histories for the Present and Future, Department of History
Living with E-Waste: Materials and Consumer Behaviour, Queen Mary Business School
Understanding the Social Life of Domestic Digital Waste and Designing Better Waste Futures, Department of Geography and Environmental Science
Learning from the Lived Experience of Industrial Waste Decommissioning, School of Law
The Work of Living With Waste: Labour, Social Reproduction and Environmental Justice in Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Department of Geography and Environmental Science
Living with Forever Pollution and the Dilemma of Responsibility, School of Law
Negotiating the Spatial Politics of Waste in Littoral Environments, Department of Geography and Environmental Science
How can we better understand and assess the impacts of waste on the environment and social well-being?
Globally, the lives of millions of people are affected by illegal, unmanaged or poorly managed wastes and our legacy of our industrial growth has left 1000s waste sites across Europe. We currently have poor understanding of the impacts of the impacts of waste on environmental systems and human health and well-being. In this theme you could develop or explore wide-ranging approaches to understand the impacts of waste including novel and low-cost sensors, remotely sensed data or participatory research.
Current Projects:
Environmental Monitoring with Waste-Derived Biodegadable Materials, School of Engineering and Materials Science
Drone-Integrated High-Frequency Dielectric Sensing for In Situ Monitoring of Emerging Waste in Freshwater Systems, School of Engineering and Materials Science
Making Landfill Waste Gases Visible with Computer-Designed Nanowire Sensors, School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
Learning from the Lived Experience of Industrial Waste Decommissioning, School of Law
Living with Forever Pollution and the Dilemma of Responsibility, School of Law
Living with Gulls: Modelling how our Waste Shapes the Lives of Gulls and People, School of Mathematical Sciences
Negotiating the Spatial Politics of Waste in Littoral Environments, Department of Geography and Environmental Science
Turning Waste into Magnetic Carbon for PFAS Soil Remediation, School of Engineering and Materials Science
How can we intervene to reduce consumption, waste production and disposal?
In this theme we explore how to understand, change or enable the cultural attitudes, economic and governance frameworks, and technological advances that reduce consumption and disposal. Interventions may be sociological, economic, technological, or environmental.
Current Projects:
Coatings for Universal Waste-Compatibility: Integrating Materials Engineering, Life-Cycle Assessment, and Economic Policy, School of Engineering and Materials Science
Waste Cleans Waste: Spent Solar Panels to Clean up Legacy Landfills, School of Engineering and Materials Science
Theorising War Waste: Pollution, Weaponisation, and the Military, Department of Sociology, Politics, and International Relations
Circular Valorisation of Agro-Industrial Waste for Sustainable Water Remediation, School of Engineering and Materials Science
Waste Treating Waste: Biomass Photocatalysts for Clean Water and Solar Fuels, School of Engineering and Materials Science
The Science of Waste: Histories for the Present and Future, Department of History
Living with E-Waste: Materials and Consumer Behaviour, Queen Mary Business School
Reducing the harm of current, future and inherited waste
Given its inevitability we also need to reduce the harm caused by waste once released to the environment. Projects in this theme span technological innovation to considering how colonial pasts, presents, and futures of waste combine with policy legacies.
Current Projects:
Waste Cleans Waste: Spent Solar Panels to Clean up Legacy Landfills, School of Engineering and Materials Science
Turning Waste into Magnetic Carbon for PFAS Soil Remediation, School of Engineering and Materials Science
Re-use and valorisation of waste materials
Waste is a valuable resource and this theme explores how technological and creative innovation and cultural change could create new commerce, industries and/or values for waste materials. For examples millions of people earn livelihoods through waste recovery and recycling, creative reuse (e.g., trash art) and the valorisation of waste materials can help advance a circular economy and engineering can transform waste into inputs for batteries, electrochemical systems and photovoltaics. All these approaches reduce pollution, conserve resources and support a more equitable and resilient future.
Current Projects:
Environmental Monitoring with Waste-Derived Biodegadable Materials, School of Engineering and Materials Science
Making Landfill Waste Gases Visible with Computer-Designed Nanowire Sensors, School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
Circular Pathways for the Next-Generation of Sustainable Sodium-Ion Batteries, School of Engineering and Materials Science
Circular Valorisation of Agro-Industrial Waste for Sustainable Water Remediation, School of Engineering and Materials Science
From Clothing to Batteries: Textile Waste, Reuse and the Changing Value of Discarded Garments, School of Engineering and Materials Science
Waste Treating Waste: Biomass Photocatalysts for Clean Water and Solar Fuels, School of Engineering and Materials Science
The Work of Living With Waste: Labour, Social Reproduction and Environmental Justice in Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Department of Geography and Environmental Science
What are the inequalities and injustices of waste production and impact?
The global waste crisis is deeply interconnected with climate change and profoundly unequal. Decomposing wastes are a key source of methane, while thousands of legacy landfills are at risk of climate-related hazards. A global minority produce and export waste to countries with weaker or unenforced environmental regulation whilst pollution from waste disposal disproportionately impacts socio-economically deprived populations. The lands and territories of Indigenous peoples have often been burdened with wastes from mining and military activities that compound historical and ongoing injustices. This theme will explore the climate, environmental, social and generational injustice of waste.
Current Projects:
Where Waste Goes: The Political Economy of Informal Disposal, Queen Mary Business School
Waste and Purity in the Polar Regions, Department of Sociology, Politics, and International Relations
Waste Landscapes: Material Worlds and Cultural Imaginaries, Department of Geography and Environmental Science
Learning from the Lived Experience of Industrial Waste Decommissioning, School of Law
Living with Forever Pollution and the Dilemma of Responsibility, School of Law