Introduction to Environmental Studies: Waste

This program is about waste: how waste cycles through environments, who is sickened by it, what is valuable and what is not, and what waste means to those who live with and around it. Our interdisciplinary studies of waste will use approaches in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities to understand waste as a complex problem and consider a range of applied solutions. The scientific, social and cultural dimensions of waste as ideas and as phenomena will be addressed.

We will focus on the fundamental concepts surrounding biological waste (human and animal) – especially excrement – considering physiology and metabolism at the organism level, to elemental and ecological cycling at the planetary level. We will spend half of the quarter studying biological waste as a problem in public health, urban planning, parasitology, and microbiology, also paying attention to the cultural dimensions of pollution and disgust. Students should be prepared to confront and question their own "yuck" thresholds as we peek into sewers, observe wastewater treatment, and analyze parasites and “germs”. We will also turn our attention to industrial, consumer, and toxic wastes, with particular attention to questions of environmental justice. We will consider garbage colonialism and the ecological, chemical and biological imprints of waste from the developed world globally. Texts will include Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map, Max Liboiron's Pollution is Colonialism, and online digital textbooks in general biology. Students wishing to pursue additional studies in Introduction to Environmental Studies: Waste in winter quarter can register for part two of the program in late fall.  

Students can expect to complete approximately 3 hours of labs and 2 hours of seminar per week; write weekly seminar papers and longer interdisciplinary synthesis essays; take occasional quizzes; collaborate on major research projects; and spend substantial time on field trips outside the classroom. 

This program is coordinated with Greener Foundations for first-year students. Greener Foundations is Evergreen’s in-person 2-quarter introductory student success course sequence, which provides first-year students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive at Evergreen. Students in Greener Foundations should register for 14 credits.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies (16):

4 - Environmental Science Laboratory

4 - Topics in Public Health: Sanitation and Microbiology

4 - Environmental Justice

2 - Topics in Environmental Science: Waste and Toxicology

2 - Social Science Methodology: Waste Tracing  

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies (14):

4 - Environmental Science Laboratory

4 - Topics in Public Health: Sanitation and Microbiology

4 - Environmental Justice

2 - Topics in Environmental Science: Waste and Toxicology