The monitoring, treatment, and disposition of solid waste is one of the many daunting challenges associated with economic development and population growth. Waste management practices vary widely around the world. Culture, social systems, economics, politics, and even religion affect what is classified as waste in the first place, what sites and methods are deemed suitable for waste disposal, and how people can be motivated to comply with regulations. Appropriate waste management is critical to sustaining eco-system services and protecting public health but successful solutions require more than improved technology.
In this research project, University of Wisconsin doctoral student Bo Wang, with the guidance of Dr. Yongming Zhou, will become one of the first researchers to look at how the many factors affecting solid waste management come together in a non-Western context. The researcher will travel to Yunnan Province in Southwest China to carry out a 12 month, ethnographic investigation in three sites: two mountain villages where tourism and pilgrimage to a sacred religious site have generated large amounts of solid waste and, in the same region, a newly established modern landfill that employs hundreds of local people in this new industry. In all three sites, solid waste is intimately intertwined with people's daily lives. Relying primarily on participant observation and interviews, the project will elucidate (1) what tourists, pilgrims, government staff, and environmental and religious groups conceive of as waste and not-waste; and (2) how waste affects and is affected by the delineation of sacred sites and tourism. Findings from this research will contribute to developing cross-culturally valid theories of how human beings understand their role in the natural and material world as well as provide critically needed information for the development of effective global programs for solid waste management.
