WasteX: Co-imagining a Circular City Framework: Trash - Treasure - Treaty

Abstract

The pace of technological change makes much of our model of urbanization socially, economically, and environmentally unsus-tainable. Paradoxically today, the amount of waste produced, en-ergy consumed, surface sealed, and water consumed per capita is considered an indicator of our junk society’s wealth. Linked to the dynamics of ongoing globalization, economic growth pressures, in-creasing living standards, and throw-away product cycles, societies perpetuate interwoven cultures of unsustainable consumption- dis-posable loops. Could wealth and benefit for our society be defined by providing more and new qualities to the many? Operating within this system, we are aware of this paradox, where an increasing GDP weighs more than the degradation of the en-vironment, the depletion of natural resources, levels of education, rampant inequalities, and the wellbeing of societies at large. The consequences of resource extraction, waste production, and the longevity of our debris leave us with a feeling of powerlessness when the world’s ecofootprint is one and a half times more than the earth can provide us with. Invited by the Mayor of Santiago de Chile and Barranquilla, we are engaged in two vibrant neighborhoods, working with people and decision-makers on the ground, dealing with the city’s solid waste, housing, and social justice challenges, upscaling them to other neighborhoods elsewhere.If we are to save ourselves from the amount of waste generated by society, we have choices; to go from talking about the abstract goals of UN, SDGs to developing concrete design projects for im-plementation that reach environmental social, and governmental targets.Extensive circular material flows observed in global south cities are often linked to poverty but have proven effective in addressing value preservation, scoring on low carbon footprint, and adding value to the circular city model.