Wandering Waste

The intention of this paper is to provide an exploration of how municipal solid waste systems generate or accelerate social inequality. Waste can produce inferiority not only among people, but also in landscapes. To achieve this aim, this research focuses on undocumented Afghan migrants in Tehran, Iran, who work as waste pickers. The analysis is chiefly based on the results of the archaeological garbage project conducted in Tehran and on my visits to villages and landscapes adjacent to Tehran. By considering sites and material culture, this paper scrutinizes the politics of “sending away” people and waste, which has led to the creation of garbage-based settlements on the edge of urban life as a result of neoliberal politics of urbanism. The research elaborates on the discussion by investigating young, undocumented Afghan migrants as a marginalized community that must intimately live with the waste of urban centers in informal refuse-sorting plants in south Tehran, where rural settlements and landscapes have been transformed into dump or informal waste-sorting workshops. To bring the material aspect of the waste management system into focus, an analysis of the agency of discarded materials shall constitute a crucial part of the discussion. The material agency of waste and its characteristics, such as longevity, polymorphism, physical properties, and the scale of waste generation, challenge the externalization of solid waste by government, local authorities, and people.