Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
22 Sustaining Waste - Sociological Perspectives
on Recycling a Hybrid Object
Ingmar Lippert
Augsburg University, Chair of Sociology, Augsburg, Germany
Abbreviations
ANT
Actor-network theory
EM
Ecological Modernisation
EMT
Ecological Modernisation Theory
OPP
Obligatory Passage Point
22.1 Introduction
Recycling is a concept, normally taken-for-granted within academic approaches to
environmental management. Recognising that recycling should be preceded by re-
duction of waste and re-use, the science of recycling usually addresses its object as
an activity which needs optimising, rather than questioning. My take on recycling
differs from the standard one: I focus on possibilities to conceptualise an agent
who was responsible for implementing a recycling scheme for her 1 organisation.
By way of drawing on sociological theories (especially Bourdieu's theory of prac-
tice and Actor-network theory) I point to significant problems in approaching sus-
tainability. The empirical data consists of ethnographic field work which illus-
trates societal implications of thinking about transforming organisations towards
sustainable conduct: by constructing a recycling scheme the waste manager of the
organisation ensures that the organisation does not move towards reducing or al-
tering resource consumption. Rather, she stabilises an unsustainable trajectory and
inhibits societal transformation even beyond her organisation. Thus, sociological
theory allows for problematising and better grasping of the societal implications
and limitations of environmental management.
In this paper I am concerned with an everyday set of activities to protect the
environment: recycling. Recycling is a ubiquitous social practice which in general
1
In order to break with the ascribed masculinity of agency, this paper refers to agents in
general as female, while the case study revolves around a male actor.
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