Waste and Commons:Some aspects and facts

Michalis Fotiadis Mataroa Ikaria 17-7-2013

Some thoughts…

• Waste and commons• Waste and the new business in Greece• Waste in Ikaria• Participatory workshop

“... the necessary and yet unspoken component of production. We make it invisible by not looking at it and unthinkable by not thinking of it. ” (Bauman, 2004)

“OUR” GARBAGE

When?

When concentrated to the landfills in large amounts

if concentrated threatens:

Public commons ( health) Natural commons (land, water)Environmental commons (air quality, fauna, flora)

(Κωστάκης,2008)

GARBAGE - COMMONS

But…A part of it may “return” as an offer to the common property from the private one. (Exchange Networks – Solidarity Bazaars)

• The infrastructure of waste collection (a public common) is given as a gift to contractors

• In Athens (district of Attica) 4 huge plants of waste processing are planned with total cost 450 m €.

• 200 m € state contribution with public money

The present situation in Greece

BUT In the CONTRACT there is guarantied waste production for 27 years (contractors will be paid anyway)

EU demands for reduce waste by 50% in 2020Waste is reduced by 30% due to “crisis”

€

OUR GODFATHERS

Chalkidiki: 0,4 Hectares of primitive forest for a gold mine

Ikaria:110 wind turbines

German contractors need to sell us their old fashion waste management technology they don’t use anymore

Fiancées from abroad

Waste factories: La grande bouffe of contractorsPOE OTA - Aris Hatzistefanou

Finally: The dominant political system preserves the today’s landfill situation in order to present contractors as deus ex machine

With the present situation a family with 4 members is charged by 30 €/year for waste management. With this new deal the same family is charged by 100 €/year (Οικονομόπουλος, 2012)

Some responses• Initiatives of citizens demanding alternative

solutions with collective and sociopolitical actions

• Decentralized policy in waste management

Active citizens denied to accept landfills (ΧΥΤΑ-Sanitary Waste Disposal) in their land.

Not because of the very simplified explanation of the selfish NIMBY syndrome but

raising issues of equity, fairness, and lack of trust in state officials and scientists (Botetzagias,2009)

MykonosCollective initiation for social waste management

This association is based on the principles of social and solidarist economy and direct democracy

• Central state is completely absent. Funding for our Municipality is less than it was before (1/3).

• Last year we experienced once that deus ex machine or Messias phenomenon.

• It was composting and charged local authority with 12000 € public money.

The situation in Ikaria

Ikaria-waste disposal-commons

For a period more than thirty years waste of the local Municipality was burning in a landfill in Katafygi village Dioxins were getting into the people’s houses

2008: People of Katafygi and surrounded villages decided to say “no” to the burning of garbage and to close the garbage dump for two weeks.They demanded for the protection of their health They claimed for their clean air, water, landThey claimed for their right to decide about their livesThey acted collectively

Press release 30-1-2008

As an immediate priority we demand for appropriate infrastructure of protection our health, human and natural environment

Here, in this place we have occupied, every day we realize our power, when all together try to solve our problems

This local movement brought to the surface important issues like the conservation of natural resources, active participation, solidarity and collective searching for solutions and, most important: empowerment (Fotiadis,2012). Praxis: The combination of activism and rational activity of critical thinking (Freire, 1993)

Finally they succeed to stop burning the waste and the local authorities been forced to start a recycling program.

Ikaria-waste-commonsEXCHANGE BAZAAR

EXCHANGE AND SOLIDARITY NETWORK

ClothesToysBooksMusicFurnitureIdeas

3rd Exchange bazaar of Ikaria

Participatory workshopNon formal environmental education orbased on community learning: important instrument of interferenceCharacteristics •Participation•collaborative learning •development of critical thinking• values clarification •action

Connects reality to the needs of citizens for knowledge and understanding. (Deri, 2005)

• Education for environmental issues must be based on initiatives of local people exploring local problems (Robottom, 2004, Tilbury, 2008).

Citizens through processes of :• Empowerment• capacity building • discourse production are more organized, deliberated and demand for a

better quality of life (Fagan, 2009).

The story of stuff (Anie Leonard)

Participants are invited "to discover" in an experiential way the steps of the circle or the "story" of a product

Participants using their daily experiential relation with the products they consume are asked to:

• refer their followed practices for waste disposal• suggest their solutions• suggest actions (in the sense of immediate

intervention) taken in a community level

Furthermore this workshop aims to set of the process itself as “innovation” that could contribute to the development of a well organized dialogue related to issues the members of the community concern about.