War: Wasting at another Pace

War is naturally wasteful. Its destruction turns useful material into waste and generates discards before, during and after active fighting. This article looks at how warfare has affected waste and vice versa. It finds that waste serves to blur clear separations between war and non-war, both in terms of time and of its material management. Waste management during peace times can serve military purposes as much as war conditions can turn civilian waste into elements of warfare. Industrialised warfare waste has shaped landscapes in numerous ways: by forming the foundation of new urban construction, by creating hills or unofficial nature conservation areas, by determining the location and limitations of usable farmlands, and by defining which areas have left the war behind and in which areas it continues. At its core, waste accentuates the way humans interact with their non-human environment: through destruction, recycling, transformation and, sometimes, unexpectedly, through its protection.