Historicizing Wastes: Another Look at Urban and Industrial Development, France, 18th–20th Centuries

The histories of waste, and of the words that have been used and continue to be used to describe

 it, are inseparable from one another. Indeed, a quick survey shows that three different types of vocabulary have emerged to describe what is now called waste in English. In the first category, terms are associated with the themes of loss and uselessness: déchet in French from the verb choir (to fall), refuse and also garbage in English (which primarily refers to animal offal), rifiuti in Italian, residuo in Spanish, Abfall in German, waste in English - from the old French vastum, which means empty or desolate. In the second category, terms emphasize the dirty or repulsive nature of these particular materials: immondice in French, immondizia in Italian, from the Latin mundus which means clean; ordure in French from the Latin horridus, meaning horrible. Finally, terms in the third category describe the materials that make up the waste: boues in French, spazzatura in Italian, Müll and Schmutz in German, rubbish in English derived from rubble.

In the talk, I will focus on the French case and I would like to show what we do learn when looking at history from the point of view of waste (déchets). Indeed, waste history and the historicisation of waste are very good way to reveal another face of the industrial revolutions and of their socio-ecological dimensions. Looking at the “invention“ of categories such as déchet and resource, then at their universalization and their changing use and meaning, can help understanding the major socio-ecological transitions that occurred during the last three centuries, together with their social and environmental consequences.