WasteMatters’ sibling project, DECAY, is coming to its end, and to celebrate the occasion, the project will organise a concluding seminar together with the WasteMatters team on Tue 11 August at 12:30-16:00, in Linna K103 at Tampere University, City Centre Campus.
DECAY is a 4-year interdisciplinary project funded by the Research Council of Finland. It has critically examined the circular economy transition at the level of both socio-technical systems and mundane practices and the accompanying shifts in waste management and waste valuations. It has particularly focused on the leaky realities of waste which disrupt endless resource recovery and the notion of waste-as-resource.
The concluding seminar will present the project’s key theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to the study of waste and the circular economy. In addition, the programme features a keynote talk by Professors Maria Jose Zapata Campos and Patrik Zapata (University of Gothenburg), as well as a panel discussion in Finnish that brings together academic and practitioner perspectives.
DECAY concluding seminar
Tuesday 11 August, 12:30-16:00
Venue: Linna K103
Programme:
12:30-12:40 Welcoming words
12:40-13:10 Prof. Olli Pyyhtinen (Tampere University): Disrupted Waste Flows in a Broken World – Key Insights (chair: Teemu Loikkanen)
13:10-13:40 Dr. Taru Lehtokunnas (Umeå University): Understanding (Bio)Waste Management Through Sensory, Multispecies, and Care-Centred Perspectives (chair: Alma Onali)
13:40-14:10 Dr. Niina Uusitalo (Tampere University): Visual Explorations with Waste Materialities (chair: Tuomas Ivonen)
14:10-14:30 Coffee break
14:30-15:15 Prof. Maria Jose Zapata Campos and Prof. Patrik Zapata (University of Gothenburg): Keynote: Plastic Justice beyond the Circular Economy: Residual Infrastructures of Care (chair: Olli Pyyhtinen)
15:15-16:00 Panel discussion (in Finnish): Kiertotalouden mahdollisuudet ja ongelmakohdat. Panellists: Prof. Elina Närvänen (Wastebusters, Tampere University), Maarit Särkilahti, Circular Economy Specialist (Pirkanmaan jätehuolto), Teemu Loikkanen, Researcher (DECAY, Tampere University), Ella Lepistö, Doctoral Researcher (WasteMatters, Tampere University). Chair: Alma Onali, Doctoral Researcher (WasteMatters, Tampere University)
You are cordially invited to join us! We kindly ask you to register by
Friday 7 August 2026 (for catering purposes), by clicking the
registration link.
DECAY and WasteMatters teams
