Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 4: The toxic cradle of productionChapter 4: The toxic cradle of productionPost-consumer waste is what people throw away. Production waste is what is dumpedby industry while producing not just consumer goods but also the infrastructure ofstate and capital. Production waste outweighs post-consumer waste 70 to 1. Thischapter opens with some observations on the global context and the interests drivingproduction wastes. It next looks at mining, the first link in the waste chain, and thenat a number of industries further along the chain: iron and steel, chemicals, plasticsand packaging, aluminium and cement.Making and wastingCapitalism is not only a “gigantic accumulation machine” [Kovel, 2002: 59]; it is alsoa gigantic waste creation machine. Its logic is to turn more and more raw materialsand energy into sellable commodities, commodities into accumulated profit and profitinto investments which then expand the system as a whole. Its restless need for neverending accumulation and expansion means that it must keep on consuming resourcesand creating an ever growing pile of waste.Behind each product on the shop shelf lies the ‘value chain’ of production which isshadowed by a vast chain of waste and destruction. This shadow leaves a deep toxicstain that spreads through air, water and land across the face of the earth and acrosstime into a poisoned future. And it represents a cost externalised from the value chainand from the price of the product on the shelf. For corporate producers and retailers, itis not only important that this cost is stripped out to keep the goods cheap but also thatthe good appears without its contaminating shadow. The wastes of production – themountainous mine heaps, the polluted spaces of production and the harsh disciplinesand toxic conditions of workplaces – must not be associated with the packaged andadvertised products on the shelf.Confronted by public unease and environmental activism, a prime corporate strategyis to move the battlefield from producer to post-consumer waste, with anti-litter andlocal beautification campaigns, and the collection of recyclables from an ever increasingWasting the Nation - groundWork - 79 -