The Culture of Disposability: How did we make throwing good things away part of our culture?

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How did disposability become such a common, even expected, occurrence for us? When did throwing away decent things become the norm for us? How can we encourage longer life cycles for our worn items? Céline Semaan, co-founder of Slow Factory, guides us through an exploration of the cultural progression of the toxic mentality that “nothing good can last,” and its implications for our society.

Resources:

Books/Literary Texts/Articles

An Incredible Satellite Tour Of 15 Trash Dumps That Are Bigger Than Towns — 1963 National Plastic Conference
[Disposability (https://discardstudies.com/2019/05/21/disposability/) by Gay Hawkins
Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash by Susan Strasser
How Plastic Is a Function of Colonialism by Dr. Max Liboiron, Teen Vogue
How Plastic Is a Function of Colonialism by Dr. Max Liboiron, Science for the People

Videos/Podcasts

Céline Semaan

Céline Semaan is a Lebanese-Canadian researcher, designer, public speaker, and entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and executive director of Slow Factory, an institute and lab that transforms socially and environmentally harmful systems by designing models that are good for the Earth and good for people. She currently sits on Progressive International’s Council alongside Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy and has published in Elle, the New York Magazine and Teen Vogue. Her inter-disciplinary work at the intersection of fashion, climate, and politics has been covered by numerous news and fashion outlets.