A posthuman dialogue on waste, meaning, and interaction

From a marine biology perspective (e.g. Sheppard 2021), human activities in the ocean, such as wastewater discharge, oil spills, overfishing, and reef destruction, are considered primarily threatening. Nevertheless, such activities should not be regarded solely as destructive. A good counterexample is the artificial reef, i.e. an artificial substrate or human-made structure emplaced in an aquatic environment mainly to improve ecological conditions, restore fish populations, and protect the coastal environment (Vivier et al. 2021).

From a humanities perspective, however, viewing such activities in the age of the Anthropocene can no longer be based on the assumption that humans are the main actants on the planet. Other species should also be considered important in understanding situations in which human and non-human entities are bound together in ongoing interactions (van Dooren et al. 2016).