Waste and postsocialism in Estonia: Becoming European through the management of rubbish

Abstract

This article explores notions of postsocialism and waste in relation to each other. The research approaches waste as a means of considering changing orders of knowledge, scripts and standards, which in our view is a key element of postsocialist societies. The research offers important information in relation to the ways in which waste practices have changed (or not) in accordance to EU regulations and standards in Estonia, and provides significant data to highlight the emergence of controversies and negotiations around this issue across different scales. It therefore aims to make an important contribution to future cross-cultural comparisons of the political implications of rubbish management; also to ongoing discussions about processes of Europeanization and how transnational socio-technical arrangements are assembled with local practices. After examining waste politics in Estonia, the article concludes that for this country, postsocialist transformations implied a break in orders of knowledge, as part of an intensive social negotiation within the framework of the EU. Nonetheless, it also foregrounds that waste practices show relevant continuities and complex scale effects in the new chain of connections and legislation.