Single-Use Heritage: An Archaeological Approach to Plastic Wastescapes as Places of (Ecological) Shame

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In recent years, archaeologists have been increasingly interested in ‘places of shame’, i.e. places related to past traumatic, painful, or regrettable human actions. In this paper we argue this concept can be expanded to incorporate sites with negative ecological impact. In particular, the interpretation of places of single-use plastic waste accumulation as contemporary heritage landscapes, or ‘wastescapes,’ of shame can import an ethical load and a responsibility to reflect on behavioural pasts, presents and futures. We suggest that the archaeological treatment and ‘heritagisation’ of such places has the potential to incite critical self-reflection on plastic consumption and hopefully encourage change in these behaviours. We examine the case of the Sugarloaf Path in Newfoundland (Canada), a hiking trail renowned for its breathtaking views of the North Atlantic coastal landscape. A portion of this path circumvents the landfill that serves the City of St. John’s. Windblown plastic waste from the landfill litters the path and surrounding area. This paper presents the preliminary digital mapping of this wastescape – a first step in making a heritage record of this contemporary archaeological place of ecological shame.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24622