Abstract

In this paper, I propose an exploration of the question of trash and garbage, of what, in other words, we unthinkingly throw away and discard, individual and collectively. What is this thing called trash and garbage? What phenomenological resources—where I understand phenomenology as centered on an analysis of the “look” of things (their visibility and invisibility) and on how we speak about things (or fail to speak, the silences)—are available for learning how to question what is trash and garbage? In developing my analysis, I draw on the notions of sedimentation, temporality, and technology in the writings of Husserl, Stiegler, and others.