Waste and Ontology

You are poor, lonely souls; failures; your role is played out. Go where you belong—into the dustbin of history. - Léon Trotsky

Paradoxically, while waste would seem to be that which disappears, it is in fact that which remains, that which can be neither consumed nor ­assimilated. It is surplus, runoff, excess. As such, it also touches on ­luxury, of which it might be considered the counterpart or flip side of the coin. A paradox then, as it exists primarily under the aegis of ­insufficiency and loss—its indigenous trait. Essentially, it is that which comes undone. These preliminary observations afford us a glimpse of the strange ­dialectical object that underlies the term and its wealth of ­possibilities.