The Waste Commons / L'Or Dur

Rosalind Fredericks, Sarita West

2024 / 61 minutes
Senegal, United States, United States / Senegal
French, Wolof with English Subtitles

Enclosing open-air dumps and outlawing waste picking are key approaches to modernizing cities around the world. The Waste Commons explores the dramatic transformations involved in the impending closure of the city waste dump in Dakar, Senegal, and the lives that hang in the balance. It follows charismatic Zidane, trailblazing Adja, and their waste picker community, as they defend their carefully crafted worlds and rights to waste.

Traveling across the colossal garbage mountain, the film zeros in on the forms of craft and expertise that have been honed over the last 55 years in the recycling of plastics, metal, and food waste. We see how, in Zidane’s words, the dump “is a mirror of the city.” Far from a realm of chaos, it is a deeply spiritual space and an organized archive of the city’s postcolonial history.

The film then dives into the politics of the dump closure and the waste pickers’ fight for the waste commons. In a tense standoff with the government, they bring waste management in the capital city to a standstill. Through capturing this pitched battle over the dump’s future, the film illuminates the lifeworlds of recycling for the urban poor and the complexities urban modernization.