Presentation short abstract

The paper develops a research agenda for political ecologies of animal waste/waste animals. Examining the portrayal of animals as waste producers, consumers, infrastructure, and wastable lives, we problematise who or what can be waste; and unravel the politics of governing waste animals/animal waste

Presentation long abstract

This paper outlines a research agenda for political ecologies of animal waste/waste animals. We chart how political ecology and cognate disciplines discuss the relationship between animals and ‘waste’, focussing on the following overlapping framings: animals as waste producers and consumers; as waste infrastructure; and as wastable lives. We critically unravel these waste categorizations through empirical examples from our respective research, whilst disentangling the political processes and power relations that differentially value nonhuman lives, their labour, and their ‘animal materials’ (Onaga & Douny, 2023).

Looking at animals as waste producers (and consumers), we examine the potential of pig slurry to be both a pollutant of water bodies as well as an untapped resource for renewable energy in rural areas. Considering animals as waste infrastructure, we explore how jellyfish and shrimp are transformed from ‘trash animals’ (Nagy & Johnson, 2013) to resources for bioremediation and ocean ‘cleanup’. Finally, examining how animals are rendered as waste, we look to animals such as wild boars that are categorised as ‘disease reservoirs’ and sacrificed for the health of humans and nonhuman others in the management of infectious animal diseases or zoonoses.

Through these diverse examples we extend the conceptual remit of ‘posthuman political ecologies’ (Margulies & Bersaglio, 2018) – which theorises the political subjectivities of nonhumans – to: (1) critically examine who or what can become ‘waste’ and how; and (2) consolidate an agenda for political ecologies of animal waste/waste animals which sketches out more ‘care-ful’ alternatives for relating with nonhuman animals.