ABSTRACT
This chapter moves on from thinking about the loss of objects and materials to explore the journey of consumption and how we distance ourselves from material things, the decisions we make to dispose of them and the value judgements this so often involves. It draws on literatures on consumption and disposal with a particular focus on moments of consumption and what are known as the 3As – acquisition, appropriation and appreciation (Warde, 2005, 2014) – and the 3Ds – devaluation, divestment and disposal (Evans, 2019). At the core of this chapter is the understanding that whilst consumption is often presented as a linear process, it is far from this with objects moving back and forth between ‘stages’ of consumption and often giving rise to numerous hidden moments of consumption. In this sense, this chapter and the one that follows on circulation can be seen as addressing the ‘messy middle’ of consumption where objects and materials may cause tension (within our lives or place of work) which must be resolved through other ‘moments’ of consumption. Drawing on my work on thrift, I explore how decisions are made about objects on the basis of competing motivations which affect how things are valued. I draw on the notion of transitional zones to discuss the spaces (physical and imaginative) in which problematic objects are held (Gregson, 2011), both for households and for institutions. My work on lost property and also plastic illuminate the tensions and anxieties which surround the practices of disposal and related moments of consumption, such as abandonment. Continuing the concept of haunting, this chapter reveals how objects still in our possession have the power to haunt us with their material affinities and traces.
