11. Landfill Culture: Some Implications to Degrowth

To some extent, waste is just one more sign of the unsustainability of growth. Waste from industrial and socio-economic metabolism must be understood as any unusable material left over after a job, function or operation has been completed, which however, retains the ability to disrupt natural systems and interfere with them as one of its inherent properties. As part of such waste, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) represents the unusable (or underused) and rejected fraction of the material resources mobilized by the sophisticated urban and/or industrial ecosystem. Although the volume of MSW is relatively small compared to other waste types, it is increasingly important as a result of its steady rise in recent years due to population growth and consumer habits. Moreover, demographic concentration in urban areas means that sustainable waste management methods are a necessity including, as an essential element, prevention and waste treatment or disposal. Hence, the importance of reduction, minimization, reuse and recycling is directly linked to sustainability and degrowth and, consequently to the future of the planet and the human species. This chapter examines the outcomes of the Planes Nacionales Integrales de Residuos—PNIR (national Comprehensive Waste Management Plans) or their regional equivalents, PIR—in Spain, discussing them under the perspective of degrowth and a post-carbon transition. It concludes that the current situation shows the lack of efficient intervention or regulation by public authorities in putting mechanisms of interaction in place, via public debate and social and economic commitment among all stakeholders (producers, manufacturers, distributors, services, users-consumers, the administration itself) throughout the sequence of MSW generation and management.