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At Home in an Unhomely World: on Living with Waste
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This philosophical essay explores what it means to live in a world permeated by modern waste—microplastics in water, chemicals in soil, particles in air—and argues that society must learn to coexist with pollution rather than simply trying to eliminate it. It raises important ethical and existential questions about environmental contamination.
Modern-day waste, such as the microplastics in the water, particulate matter in the air and chemical waste in the soil, distorts notions of inner and outer, of familiarity and strangeness, of own and other, and turns our world into an unhomely (uncanny) place. This paper explores what it means to live-with waste instead of trying to make it go away. When we explore the ontology of waste, we find that waste is never unambiguously (in the) present and invites us to take “being” as haunted and explore a “hauntology” (Jaques Derrida) of waste. This hauntology refers to being as ecological being or “being ecological” (Timothy Morton) and invites us to inquire after the “eco” in ecology: the Greeks oikos (home). When, as this paper suggests, we take cohabitation as a starting point, it becomes unclear who is the host and who has come to visit. Whose home takes central stage? And whose world? This paper argues we need to let go of an overarching concept of “world” and instead become familiar with (our) “habitat” and in so doing open it up to the non-humans we share our “home” with. Sticking with the metaphor of (un)home(liness) this paper argues that our house is a haunted house and explores ways in which we can become hospitable with these (unwelcome) guests.
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This philosophical study examines the ethical dimensions of pollution's health impacts, including microplastics, air pollution, and chemical contamination, arguing for ethical obligations at individual, corporate, and governmental levels. The author considers practical solutions such as electric vehicle adoption, congestion charges, recycling schemes, and encouraging alternatives to plastic, while emphasizing the need for internationally agreed regulation.
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This short philosophical piece reflects on environmental deterioration, mentioning microplastics in water, airborne toxins, and soil degradation as signs of ecological imbalance driven by human activity. It is an opinion essay rather than a scientific study.
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Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.