KNL "Waste in the East. Consumerism and Trash in Communist Eastern Europe"; Organisiert in Kooperation mit dem Oberseminar Osteuropäische Geschichte (FB04)
GCSC Keynote Lecture on "Waste in the East" by Prof. Dr. Viktor Pál.
- https://www.uni-giessen.de/en/faculties/ggkgcsc/events/gcsc-keynote-lecture-series/wise-knl-2025-2026/waste-in-the-east
- KNL "Waste in the East. Consumerism and Trash in Communist Eastern Europe"; Organisiert in Kooperation mit dem Oberseminar Osteuropäische Geschichte (FB04)
- 2025-10-21T18:00:00+02:00
- 2025-10-21T20:00:00+02:00
- GCSC Keynote Lecture on "Waste in the East" by Prof. Dr. Viktor Pál.
Oct 21, 2025 from 06:00 to 08:00 (Europe/Berlin / UTC200)
GCSC Conference Room
Prof. Dr. Viktor Pál
After World War II, post-consumer waste has become a significant issue in the West, with disposable materials dominating markets and landfills. However, our understanding of the history of post-consumer waste in communist Eastern Europe remains underexplored. This presentation reframes the environmental costs of consumerism under communism by focusing on a unique waste dilemma shaped by ideological, social, and economic factors, including challenges such as limited landfill capacity, inadequate funding for waste collection, and issues with recycling systems in communist cities. This talk will also discuss the role of state control, organizational difficulties, and local market distortions affecting recycling efforts, portraying a complex environmental history in the socialist bloc that reveals that despite extensive economic growth and ecological harm, Eastern European states developed some environmental protection and recycling mechanisms, though with significant limitations and problems.
Useful readings in preparation to the Keynote are to be found here and here
Viktor Pál is a research lead and associate professor at the University of Ostrava, Czechia. He completed his PhD at the University of Tampere, Finland in 2015. His research focuses on environmental history of socialism and modern East Central Europe. Viktor has published scientific articles in leading journals, such as Ab Imperio, Agricultural History, Environmental History, Environment and History, Journal of Contemporary History, Journal of Historical Geography, and others, as well as edited volumes and special issues on themes related to sustainability. Viktor is also the author of the monograph Technology and the Environment in State-Socialist Hungary (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
