Waste and the Environment

Dr. Gholamhossein Biabani; Secretary of the Iranian Association for the Development of Detective Science and Innovation Studies

The production and disposal of waste represent a crucial issue for academic researchers interested in questions concerning environmental harm. Systematic analysis in this field, across a range of studies, indicates that many of them relate to the concept of environmental justice.

Moreover, current discussions on waste disposal—pursued by non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies—are also closely tied to issues of environmental injustice. These studies emphasize challenges such as the massive growth of electronic waste resulting from the microchip revolution, and how obsolete computers, televisions, and other electronic products are buried in regions like Africa and Southeast Asia.

Both legal and illegal transfers of hazardous waste cause environmental and social harm, with the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of the global population bearing the cost. As toxic materials infiltrate specific regions, distinct ecosystems are destroyed, endangering the health of both humans and animals.

Waste production is linked to development. Capitalism continually seeks entities that can be easily transformed from use-value into exchange-value—an approach that extends even to nature. Consequently, every aspect of human life becomes subject to transformation, as capital strives to commodify all forms of human activity and need.

For example, something that was once “free” is now sold to consumers at a price (e.g., bottled water). Efficient consumption now serves production, meaning that consumer activities and choices are shaped by what is produced and how it is produced. Yet it is through these very acts of consumption and the ever-evolving cultural contexts of consumerism that production finds its value.

The clear outcome of an ever-expanding system based on increased production and consumption is mounting pressure on the planet’s non-renewable resources. Global capitalist competition and the waste it generates have profound effects on the environment, on humans, and on animals—manifesting as pollution and toxic contamination of air, water, and soil. Similar processes pose serious threats to biodiversity.

At the heart of these processes lies a political culture that finds nothing problematic in the notion that continuous material consumption can proceed without fundamentally damaging the biosphere. Utility often equates to commodification—implying, in turn, vast amounts of waste and pollution.

Essentially, production and destruction are interrelated. Waste is both a by-product of production and a residue of consumption. The raw materials devoted to producing goods and providing services are largely determined by producers, not by final consumers. This involves the exploitation of environments, human beings, and animals alike.

Similarly, waste—both as a by-product of production and as leftover consumption—is ultimately defined within the production process according to principles of profitability. For example, plastic packaging entices consumers to purchase products but then becomes part of the waste that must later be disposed of.

There exist numerous international agreements concerning the transportation, storage, and disposal of waste and pollutants. Global green criminology, as applied to the study of waste and pollution, insists on a worldwide analysis of this problem, focusing on the concept of “harm” as central rather than “crime.”

It is essential to move beyond the legal/illegal distinction to understand what such harm entails in practice, though this relationship remains analytically important. To grasp the concept of waste, we must know where it comes from and where it goes. In this regard, an analysis of the production cycle becomes highly valuable.