The fourth lecture in the ASI lecture series “Waste: inevitable evil, avoidable curse, or precious resource?” is given by Jan Willem Wieland and Madhura Rao. The lecture will explore responsibility for the waste problem, as well as the ongoing food waste crisis.
Waste, like climate change, can be seen as a "responsibility problem." Corporations say that consumers demand their products and are not willing to buy waste-free alternatives, while individual consumers don't always see a choice. The first part of the lecture, given by Jan Willem Wieland, will be about the question: who bears the primary responsibility for waste?
The second part of the lecture will dive into questions such as who causes food waste and whose responsibility is it to fix the problem? The world is currently going through a food waste crisis. Considering the growing population and declining natural resources, we really should be doing more to ensure that less food ends up in the bin. But who exactly is ‘we’ and how can they be convinced to waste less? Madhura Rao will draw on autoethnographic reflections and insights from her research on the subject to untangle the complexities of this seemingly unending problem and discuss whether individuals could indeed be doing more to reduce food waste – or whether the solution lies elsewhere.
The Waste Lecture Series is an initiative of ASI together with Freek Colombijn (Faculty of Social Sciences, Social and Cultural Anthropology, VU Amsterdam). Amsterdam Sustainability Institute provides an inclusive umbrella for sustainability-related research at VU.
The event is open for all. Make sure to register!
This event is in-person only. Register using this link.
