Modeling WEEE circularity:between glossy complexity and grimy potential

Abstract

This paper explores technological imaginaries and rationalities that underpin the circular economy, specifically WEEE recycling. I consider the interplay between models as schematic simulations on the one hand and waste as indeterminate potentiality on the other. Key to my analysis are slippages between complexity and potentiality. Models are by nature different from their external referent, forming either models of or for (description versus prescription). As schematic simulations, they seek to approximate external realities, whereby the latest technologies promise to tackle degrees of complexity at the edge of what can be known. Waste as potentiality draws on a Deleuzian- Simondonian notion of the virtual. It offers a relational and processual framework that places waste matter in relation to various situational practices including neglect, dumping, reuse, refurbishment, and shredding. My aim is to work toward a critical theory of sustainability modeling and assessment of technology in the context of the waste crisis