If the city is the largest concentrator of resources in human history, why are we still designing it to throw most of them away?
For thousands of years the ocean and waterways have been key drivers of both urban and economic growth. For all this time the cities that have bloomed and flourished around waterways and near the ocean, have been designed as throughput systems: resources flow in, waste flows out, and the ecological systems at both ends of the pipeline absorb the consequences. Nowadays, this is especially visible in cities that function not only as places of residence and production, but also as destinations — where tourism, hospitality, events, waterfront districts and visitor economies intensify the flows of food, water, energy, materials, packaging and waste through the urban system. Plastics and other materials move through cities into rivers, coastlines and oceans, turning urban waste into ecological pressure far beyond the city itself.
This is not merely a waste management infrastructure problem. It is an urban design, procurement, business model and governance challenge. If we want to stop urban waste damaging our rivers and oceans we will thus need a systems change.
This lab examines what it takes to redesign urban waste systems so that there is no more trash ending up in our rivers or oceans.
