Incomplete Manifesto for Refuse 

 

• Refuse (ri-ˈfyüz) : to express determination not to; to decline to submit to 

• Refuse (re-ˌfyüs) : something that is discarded as worthless or useless 

 

The slight variation of this word brings a deeper level and understanding of the other. Refuse refuses. No matter how much we try to keep the refuse tidy, compartmentalized, spruced up, or invisible it continues to accumulate and infiltrate our everyday lives. Instead of putting our efforts into solving the waste problem, we have become more concerned with strategies of outsourcing this burden onto someone else. We know that there are both ethical and environmental problems with trash, but do we really understand these problems? The problem isn’t with trash, but with our relationship to objects, our willingness to accept things as trash and accept our roles in the production of trash. The current economic system relies on planned obsolescence and the production of refuse to create economic growth. We must buy to keep the illusion of the machine going. Don’t think about the waste. Just buy and throw away, buy, throw away, buy, throw away. Don’t think at all. To tackle refuse we must refuse. To understand refuse as a source of potential. The problem with trash isn’t that it exists but that we don’t know what to do with it. Trash doesn’t go away each week because the sanitation workers come and take it away, send it off to landfills where we don’t have to see it or think about it. We can no longer trust the systems in place to properly care for the excess of commodities we are forced to consume, we must deal with them ourselves. I want to enable all of you to become creatives and problem solvers, to become aware of the waste you produce daily and immerse yourself in the potential in refuse and refusal.

 

Refuse the narrow definitions of value and use that are assigned to objects by capitalism.

Refuse what relies on waste for profit.

Refuse what is rejected as trash, what is seen as useless and denied the chance to be useful.

Challenge, contest, and celebrate the previously wasted.

Gather the refuse being shit out by the machine and create from it objects of delight or utility.

Refuse the non-functional byproduct of the urban condition.

Refuse economic growth and its dependence on the production of waste.

Refuse to submit to the illusion of the machine.

Refuse to let your senses go numb to the overwhelming amount of detritus we face day to day. 

 

Each night gather the refuse that you produced that day. Look at it.

Explore it. Learn about it. Figure out what it’s made out of. Break it down.

Prepare it for new use. Turn it into something.  

Use everything you can and make everything you can. 

Refuse everything you can.