John Scanlan – The Idea of Waste

John Scanlan, Research Fellow in Place Development & Promotion at University of Lancashire (UK), discussed his book The Idea of Waste: On the Limits of Human Life (Reaktion Books, 2025) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 27 April 2026.

The Idea of Waste starts with the premise that waste is inevitable in human society. It explores how we have grappled with both the material reality and the spectre of this shape-shifting phenomenon throughout history – utilizing it, dreaming of overcoming it, yet never escaping it. John Scanlan investigates what waste is and why it seems to be intrinsic to human life, at every turn, in every age and epoch. He demonstrates how waste never disappears completely but rather only proliferates anew. The compelling narrative shows waste to be both an enduring material consequence of human activity and an idea or state of being.