This paper analyses the interest which developed in Great Britain around composting from the late 1920s. It argues that before the current vogue for composting, the technique attracted considerable attention in the middle of the twentieth century and that interest in this technology was not limited to a few 'mystical' members of the organic movement. This paper also analyses the role of an institution called the Natural Resources (Technical) Committee and attempts to show that opposition in Whitehall played a key role in the marginalisation of this technology. It thus suggests that the rise of the 'hegemony of disposal' in the twentieth century did not go uncontested and that it was not a purely technical and inexorable movement. The example of composting thus shows that the birth of a 'throwaway society' was not as consensual as usually described and rather than the result of a widespread aversion to refuse, it should be seen as the result of political decisions, themselves informed by a specific type of quantitative and reductionist type of expertise.

中文翻译：

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城市垃圾的生育能力？1920 年代至 1960 年代英国堆肥的案例

本文分析了英国从 1920 年代后期开始对堆肥产生的兴趣。它认为，在当前堆肥流行之前，该技术在 20 世纪中叶引起了相当大的关注，并且对该技术的兴趣不仅限于有机运动的少数“神秘”成员。本文还分析了一个名为自然资源（技术）委员会的机构的作用，并试图表明白厅的反对在这项技术的边缘化中发挥了关键作用。因此，它表明 20 世纪“处置霸权”的兴起并非没有争议，它也不是一场纯粹的技术性和无情的运动。因此，堆肥的例子表明“一次性社会”的诞生