The Waste Age

This view is key to transforming the future. If waste is the mesh that entangles nature and culture, then it's necessarily the defining material of our time. We live in the Waste Age, and only by recognising the scale of the crisis that accompanies it can we align society and the economy towards less polluting production methods. Justin McGuirk, the chief curator at the Design Museum in London, argues that instead of just worrying about waste, we need to make it a central concept at the heart of everything we design, make and build. "If waste truly were to be a central issue — brought into the heart of every conversation about how things are extracted, designed and disposed of — it would transform society. To invoke the Waste Age is to usher in the hope of a cleaner future."