ABSTRACT
The presence of material goods in contemporary affluent societies is ubiquitous. From clothing to furniture, cars, phones and appliances, our interaction with these goods is a given. Navigating the course of daily life is accomplished, in large part, through the contours of a topography of interrelated material objects. Many of these material objects are engaged with in the context of various social practices that form the relatively ‘inconspicuous consumption’ of day-to-day life (Shove and Warde 2002). In this spirit, and as part of a broader research project on divestment of material goods in the domestic sphere (Glover 2012), this chapter discusses curbside bulk waste collection as a site for practices of material divestment that may be amenable to interventions for more sustainable resource use.
