Beatrice “Bee” Arthur, Global fashion designer, Leader of Fashion Domain Ghana and curator of Echoes of the Landfill, argues that how we talk about waste determines how we treat it. From policymaking to public attitudes, the vocabulary surrounding discarded materials not only reflects social bias, it also actively shapes environmental outcomes.
“The term ‘trash’ is a linguistic erasure,” Arthur writes. “It declares materials irredeemable, stripping them of history, potential, and dignity.”
This framing, she notes, has real-world consequences. Research from the University of Pennsylvania (2020) shows that labeling items as “trash” lowers perceived value and deters creative reuse. Legal frameworks, such as the EU Waste Framework Directive, further cement these perceptions by restricting cross-border movement of materials deemed “waste,” often making landfilling more viable than repurposing.
Arthur connects these linguistic patterns to broader systems of extraction and inequality, particularly in the context of “waste colonialism,” a term used to describe the export of waste from wealthier countries to poorer ones under the guise of aid. According to UNEP, 15% of global plastic waste is shipped from the Global North to the Global South, often ending up in markets like Kantamanto in Accra, where 40% of imported secondhand clothing is unusable.
Local creatives, however, are reimagining these discards. Designer Sel Kofiga refers to such textiles as “material archives,” while Gambian zero-waste advocate Isatou Ceesay transforms plastic bags into reusable goods she calls “threads of resilience.”
For Arthur, these shifts are more than semantic. “Calling objects ‘trash’ mirrors how marginalised communities are deemed disposable,” she argues. “Our vocabulary is either a barrier or a bridge.”
She proposes alternative terms, reclaimed goods, urban ore, material heritage, objects in transition, that carry a sense of value, memory, and possibility. In doing so, she challenges institutions, governments, and individuals to speak of waste not as an endpoint, but as a material in flux.
As climate change accelerates and the circular economy becomes a development priority, Arthur urges a collective rethinking of the language we use. The words we choose, she says, can either reinforce the extractive status quo or support a more just, sustainable future.
