Reframing Waste: Imagining Apocalyptic Waste Disposal in Contemporary Speculative Fiction

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Waste and its disposal are inescapable features of the Anthropocene. According to World Bank, global waste isexpected to have increased by roughly 70 percent to 3.4 billion metric tons by 2050, with at least 33% of wastebeing mismanaged globally. This global waste crisis leads to climate change and poses threats to the ecosystemand public health including malaria, yellow fever, and other fatal diseases. To meet such challenges requiresmonumental, concerted efforts of imagination, including a re-thinking of how waste is handled and what wastemeans. My proposed Ph.D. research will explore how creative work can help us imagine possibilities of wastedisposal and purpose future models for living with waste in the Anthropocene.My project will explore how speculative fiction combines waste with capitalist crises in the Anthropocene, whileinvestigating intersections and tensions among the fields of speculative fiction, waste studies and ecocriticism. Myaim is to reframe waste by focusing on its redefinition, reuse, management and symbiosis with humans in sciencefictionalscenarios, and to offer a more hopeful account of its possible future.