Garbage in, garbage out

Waste management is the single most important civilizational function. The second we stop treating garbage and sewage, the cholera timer starts ticking and we only have days left until disease starts to wipe our settlements. The bigger the city the bigger the problem, too. One can’t can’t really compost one’s way out of millions of households in a consumerist society.

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In many places this is at the core of public services run by municipalities, employing vast numbers of public service workers. Vienna’s waste management directorate, the MA 48 is a highly valued and trusted organization that has beautifully organized recycling yards where people can come and visit, pick up composted soil for their houseplants, dispose of larger items, and even collect usable items. Vienna also boasts the most fun garbage incinerator, designed by the superstar of playful architecture Hundertwasser.

Spittelau Waste Incinerator in Vienna, Austria. Photo by Dimitry Anikin via Wikimedia Commons.

In less fortunate cases, private enterprises compete for these contracts, and often even the mafia get involved – for instance the Camorra in Naples, Italy. Trash is lucrative, but it’s also rather hazardous. The collection, selection and treatment of garbage especially communal waste and hazardous materials are matters of life or death, and potentially responsible for massive pollution:

In 2022, the total waste generated in the EU by all economic activities and households amounted to 2233 million tonnes or 4999  kg per capita.

Of all this, 9 per cent was created by households and 38 per cent by construction.

Albeit the European Union is steadfast in regulating its way through such problems, it still shies away from firmer handling of industrial waste, which constitutes the vast majority of the problem materials. And the enforcement of these rules is left to the member states, who often avoid or abuse these duties.

They often chose to simply export the problem: member states of the European Union sent over than 20 times more plastic waste to Turkey in 2020 than 2016.

According to Eurostat in 2021, iron and steel exports amounted to 19.5 million tonnes, accounting for more than half (59%) of all waste exports from the EU. The main destination was Türkiye which received 13.1 million tonnes, 67 per cent of all ferrous metal waste exported from the EU.

To talk pan-European trash, 3 guests are joining today’s episode at Kaffesatz bei Gleis 21.

Guests

Pablo Sanchez Centellas is a representative of EPSU the European Public Service Union based in Brussels. EPSU influences the policies and decisions of employers, governments and European institutions that affect public service workers, their families and communities.

Petra Wintner is the project manager of carla at Caritas Vienna. The carla stores have been a hub for usable, intact goods donated by people who no longer need them. On the one hand, women, men and entire families are provided with clothing, table and bed linen from this collection, on the other hand, long-term unemployed people are given the chance to re-enter the job market.

Orsolya Jeney is a human rights expert with a passion for upcycling. As the founder of Ursuslupus & Upcycling Productions, two Hungarian enterprises, I am dedicated to promoting the principles of a circular economy through the upcycling of discarded materials.

Creative team

Réka Kinga Papp, editor-in-chief
Daniela Univazo Marquina, writer-editor
Merve Akyel, art director
Zeynep Feriha Demir, producer
Zsófia Gabriella Papp, digital producer

Management

Priyanka Hutschenreiter, project manager
Judit Csikós, financial manager
Csilla Nagyné Kardos, office administration
Maximilian Lehner, managing director

OKTO Crew

Senad Hergić, producer
Leah Hochedlinger, video recording
Marlena Stolze, video recording
Clemens Schmiedbauer, video recording
Richard Brusek, sound recording

Postproduction

Milán Golovics, dialogue editor
Dániel Nagy, dialogue editor
Nóra Ruszkai, video editor
István Nagy, post production

Art

Victor Maria Lima, animation
Music by Crypt-of-Insomnia

Captions and subtitles

Julia Sobota  closed captions, Polish and French subtitles; language versions management
Farah Ayyash  Arabic subtitles
Katalin Szlukovényi  Hungarian subtitles

Hosted by Kaffesatz at Gleis 21

Disclosure

This talk show is a Display Europe production: a ground-breaking media platform anchored in public values.

This programme is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and the European Cultural Foundation.

Importantly, the views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and speakers only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the EACEA can be held responsible for them.