Sustaining Waste – Sociological Perspectives on Recycling a Hybrid Object - Implementing Environmental and Resource Management - page 285

22.2 Situating Recycling in Practice

The practice of recycling is intrinsically linked to the creation and management of
waste. Societies of all kinds, cultures and ages had to deal with both the disposal
of no-longer needed materials and the gathering of those bits which could be used
directly or after processing (Keller 1998, p. 61) 3 . By now, it seems common sense
in policy discourse that “industrial operations should be encouraged that are more
efficient in terms of resource use, that generate less pollution and waste [as well as
on those] that are based on the use of renewable [...] resources” (Brundtland et al.
1987, p. 213). Corporations claim to green themselves and in the course of that
they introduce recycling schemes. However, the limits of recycling remain to be
scrutinised. To situate the limits of managing recycling in the social 4 a case seems
adequate.
The case revolves around Julian Berger whom I met in 2006 during my ethno-
graphic fieldwork. I spent a day with Julian 5 at one of my frequent meetings with
students and staff involved in 'greening' universities - somewhere in Western
Europe 6 . Julian was employed by the student union of his university to co-ordinate
environmental projects and the environmental management of the union. Before
this part-time job he had been taking a course dealing with environmental issues.
His work consisted, amongst other things, of communicating with authorities and
firms to organise recycling within the university and other facilities within the un-
ion. At the same time he was responsible for the recycling of the union office
waste. Other topics he dealt with were energy saving and mobility.
I joined Julian at his work to study his practices. For his work he was con-
stantly communicating with others: he needed them to fulfil his tasks, he tried to
convince them, they directed him and he served them. Julian was telling me that it
was his aim to implement structures within the student union that would help it to
become 'green'. During this day it became obvious to me that he was part of many
social relations. He made this explicit by talking about what he was doing: “(I)

3

For a definition of recycling see Simonis et al. (2003, p. 167).

4

Within the paper, 'the social' is not conceived of as a sphere, neatly separated from other
spheres. Rather, the social signifies the all encompassing presence of societal relations,
practices mediating between us, involved in all human reality including the knowing of
any kind of reality.

5

During this day I undertook ethnographic fieldwork (Agar 1980; Thomas 1993; Burawoy
1998; Graeber 2004) which was part of an engagement with Julian lasting about 10
months. My prime role was being an observer, and occasionally I helped Julian to carry
out his tasks. All data from this day is based on field notes. My use of field notes has
been inspired by Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw (1995). The analysis aimed at problematising
an instance of his practices and do neither represent Julian's intentions nor the wider mi-
cro-political setting in which he acted.

6

I have been involved with 'greening' universities from 2001 till 2007. In this time I met
all kinds of university members who dealt with this issue in Austria, Belgium, Germany
and the UK.