Beyond Recycling

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Time: 6.00pm
Venue: Unit 29, Cedar Way Industrial Estate, Camley Street, N1C 4PD
Price: free
Speaker(s): Dr Paul Micklethwaite

As part of the Thinkers Makers Dreamers Exhibition by MA Sustainable Design. 

Paul Micklethwaite critically explores unasked questions around recycling and its prominent position in contemporary thinking about sustainability following the recent release of his book Beyond Recycling. He examines and challenges assumptions about why we appear to have so wholeheartedly committed to recycling as a cultural project

Recycling has become a commonplace notion and widespread practice. Yet its social, cultural and even environmental value has not been considered carefully enough. Paul Micklethwaite will be discussing recycling as a contemporary cultural idea related to – but not wholly defined by – our response to material waste.

As we become increasingly satiated, and in many cases sickened, by the excesses of modern consumerism, we are rethinking our relationship with the physical stuff that fills our lives. Dissatisfied with empty materialism, we seek new ways to reuse our material culture. Recycling, turning something considered to be waste into something with renewed value, is our primary collective response to the problems arising from consumption; and it's ripe for critical examination.

For further information about this event:

Contact: Anne Marie Fisker
Email: A.M.Fisker@kingston.ac.uk