úrgangsminnkun

úrgangsminnkun is an Icelandic term used in environmental humanities and anthropology to describe the memory of waste within social and material culture. The word combines úrgangur, meaning waste, with minnkun (memory), to denote how societies recall, record, and respond to waste across time. The concept encompasses both collective recollections of past production and discard practices and the physical remnants of waste systems, such as landfills, recycling facilities, and contaminated sites, which can function as mnemonic landscapes that keep waste histories legible.

Scholars study úrgangsminnkun through memory studies, archaeology of modern waste, and cultural geography, using methods such as discourse analysis, material culture analysis, and landscape interpretation. Topics include how municipal waste programs shape public memory of consumption, how disposal sites become part of local heritage, and how narratives around cleaning up or returning to nature reflect cultural values and anxieties about modern life.

Applications of the concept include informing long-term waste policy by acknowledging historical contingencies of waste systems, guiding the design and management of disposal sites with cultural sensitivity, and integrating indigenous and local knowledge into waste discourse. It also encourages reflection on what is remembered or forgotten in relation to material waste and who bears responsibility for its legacies.

See also: waste management, memory studies, material culture, archaeology of modern waste, environmental humanities.