This year the AAG’s annual meeting is in Chicago from April 21-25. The schedule shows that presentations on discard studies at an all time high. However, the over 100 panels on waste and pollution are rarely grouped together in panels dedicated to the topic. Instead, they are case studies or topics of concern on panels about sustainability, urban development, watersheds, “odd objects,” neoliberalism, and a host of other topics. It would seem that in geography, discards have become a common way to look at other problems. Our dream (at Discard Studies) has arrived!

Below is a list of the few panels dedicated to waste, including the ones I have co-organized with Josh Lepawsky, followed by the long list of individual panels on waste and pollution. We hope to see you there!

Panels:

Tuesday, 4/21/2015
8:00 AM: A Global Food Waste “Tour” I: Exploring the Phenomenon of Food Waste in the Global North and the Global South
10:00: A Global Food Waste “Tour” II: Exploring the Phenomenon of Food Waste in the Global North and the Global South
12:40: Making Other Worlds Possible III: Discards, Diverse Economies, and Degrowth I
2:40: Making Other Worlds Possible IV: Discards, Diverse Economies, and Degrowth II

Thursday, 4/23/2015
10:00 AM: The Value of Capitalist Natures III: Life, Waste, Finance

Friday, 4/24/2015
8:00 AM: Environmental Pollution in the United States

Individual Sessions on Waste:

Unpacking waste-to-energy: material needs, energy opportunities and the waste hierarchy

Food Waste Prevention in Universities: Using social media as a tool for behaviour change

Wasted Batteries

Waste, Crisis, and the Ecological Limits to Capital

Holding on to Waste: Transformation of the Landscapes and Governance of Urban Waste in Ankara, Turkey

The (in)visible landscapes of large-scale infrastructures

A Global Assessment of the Reuse of Untreated Wastewater in Irrigated Agriculture

University campus: Living labs and classrooms for sustainability

Using Interpretive Method to Analyze Electronic Waste Policy

The Impact of Socioeconomic Marginality, Settlement Formality, and Geographic Marginality on Access to Wastewater Infrastructure in Tijuana, Mexico

Bodies, Communities, Rivers: Affect and matter in China’s organic waste DIY project

Exchange and refurbish: a case study of a decolonial, anarchist, alternative economy project in Chiapas, Mexico.

Spatial Analysis of Green Waste Management in Fresno, California

Altering the Urban Environment: A Case Study of Los Cartoneros in Buenos Aires

Tracking Trans-national Hazardous Waste Trading: Methodological Problems and Partial Solutions

Food, fads and fashion – how modern kitchens create more waste.

Build it and they will come: Urban wasteland habitat

Resource geographies and diverse economies of urban mining in Australia

Capital’s Demon: Industrial Sorting and A Theory of Dark Value

Reimagining the New Industrial City: articulating an alternative ethos of waste and production through ‘closing the loop’

The Political Ecology of Urban Food Waste: Uneven Governance in the World’s Cities

Jefferson County, Alabama: Catalog Entries for the Museum of Waste

Addressing “Food Waste”, Changing Food Value(s)? Comparing France and the United States

A Dump with a View – Insights into the Forging of Johannesburg’s Urban Political Economy Gleaned from a Soweto Garbage Dump

The europeanization of waste regimes: Prevention and preparing for re-use in the national context of Germany

Network Analysis of Research on Discards, Diverse Economies, and Degrowth

Transformation of ‘Food’ to ‘Waste’ at the Household Level

Food Waste From Food Literate Households in Waterloo, Canada

Challenges of Solid Waste Management in Patna, India

Grocery retail development and household food waste in Seoul

Exploring the “Household” as a Site of Food Consumption and Food Waste: The Case of Indonesia

Innovative Solutions to Canada’s Waste Management Problem: Comparing Local Versus Remote Waste Transportation

The Path to Zero Waste at a Liberal Arts University

People, Protests and Planning: Siting for Waste Management

Islands in the Stream: Waste, Infrastructure, and the Expansion of the Carceral City

Exploring STEM (and STEAM) through Geography: Making Space for Technology

After the floods: disposability and the everyday in Kedarnath, Himalaya

Possible Impacts of the hukou Registration System and Global Recycling Industries on the Extended Metropolis in China

Conflict, Contradiction, and Hierarchy: An Analysis of the Waste Governance at the Pottery Industrial District in Porto Ferreira, São Paulo, Brazil

Industrial Symbiosis at the Urban Boundary

Individual Sessions on Pollution:

Trans-boundary Pollution in China: Do Polluting Plants Locate in the Borders of Jurisdictions?

Breathe In, Breathe Out: Respiratory Hospitalization in Metro East St. Louis

Political Ecology of Coal in East Asia with the Growth of Coal Power Plants in South Korea

The Emission Weighted Proximity Model Performance for Estimating Long Term Air Pollution Exposure Risks In Large Geographic Areas

Analysis of Environmental and Socio-economic Factors of Cancer Villages in China

Atmospheric nitrogen inputs and cycling in montane forests in and near a major tropical city

Three-dimensional Dynamic Modelling of Air Pollution Dispersion In Urban Street Canyons: A Case Study of Hong Kong

Exploring the Social Indicators to Understand Stormwater Management

Spatial Occurrence of Northeastern Ohio Bats to Artificial Light Sources

Developing spatial multipollutant metrics for epidemiologic research

Environmental Reconstructions in the Uinta Mountains, UT: Insights into the Effects of Climate Change and Atmospheric Deposition

Whose Arctic? Exploring southern-Canadian narratives of the Canadian Arctic through pollution policy

The spatial injustice of exposure to sanitary sewage and other pollutants discharges in the SJBE

The spatial distribution of traffic-related air pollution and road traffic noise in Montreal (Canada): an environmental equity case

MONITORING THE RATE OF POLLUTION OF URBAN RIVER ESTUARINE; A CASE STUDY THE CALABAR RIVER, S.E. NIGERIA

Trophically Disparate Levels of Blood Mercury in Breeding Birds of Northwest Greenland

Does where you live matter? Assessing how air pollution relates to asthma and COPD

Toxic Release Inventory and Infant Mortality in New York State

Limits of Dominion: Tracing Environmental Impacts of the Physical and Biometric U.S.-Mexico Border

Noise busters: noise detection and perception through citizen science approach and crowdsourced information.

Spatial-Temporal Analyses of Heavy Metal Water Pollution and Impacts on Public Health in China

Cancer Risks from Exposure to Vehicular Air Pollution: A Household Level Analysis of Intra-Ethnic Inequities in Miami, Florida

Developing a GIS-based model to track potential point-sources of urban stream pollution

Dynamic modeling of inhaled air pollution using GPS and accelerometer data

Determinants of Household-level Air Toxics Cancer Risk Disparities in Greater Miami, Florida

The Institutional Dynamics of Water Management in the Everglades Agricultural Area

Industrial Agglomeration and Chinese Manufacturing Pollution

Noise maps on the move: a case study of Hartford, CE

Temporal Relationship between Air Pollution and Hospital Admissions for Respiratory Diseases in Bilecik, Turkey

A spatial assessment of urban air quality in growing cities using innovative portable sensing techniques: A pilot study

Ambient Air Pollution and Birth Weight in Georgia, USA

Children’s Exposure to Criteria Air Pollution Due to Drop-off Programs at School

Local Alterations to the Nitrogen Cycle Following Industrial Development as Indicated by Tree-Ring Stable Isotopes in Chinese Parasol Trees

Multicriteria geospatial optimization approach to watershed management strategies

Water Pollution and the Connection to Industry in Bangladesh

Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Air Pollution in Chinese Cities

Assessment of runoff and nutrient loadings in Lianshui Watershed using modified SWAT model

Dry deposition of atmospheric particulate matter to wavy water surfaces

GIS Hotspot Analysis of Environmental Toxins in the Air and Water at a Municipal Scale

Integrated Environmental Health Impact Assessment: A Missed Opportunity For The Detroit River International Crossing Study?

Fine particulate matter dynamic and its impact on public health in rapid urbanized China

Interpolative Spatial Modeling of the Distribution of NO2, CO, and SO2 Aerosols in Tehran, Iran

Importance of Road Name Address for Line Source Air Pollution Dispersion