material culture | After Single Use

Heath(care) derivatives as hazardous waste: New understandings of chemical infrastructures and disease control paradigms in (global) health

Alice Street was part of the panel Health(care) derivatives as hazardous waste at HEAT 2025: Health, Environment, and Anthropology, a conference on planetary health and the environment. This presentation examined how single-use plastics have become a foundational yet increasingly problematic chemical infrastructure within global healthcare.

Bruno Strasser reads his book The Mask while wearing a mask.

09 Dec 2025

Bruno J. Strasser’s The Mask shortlisted for Nature's best science writing 2025

The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air, co-authored by After the Single Use researcher Bruno J. Strasser, has been shortlisted for a leading science writing award. The book has been praised for its richly illustrated, global history of respiratory masks and its timely reflections on how societies navigate risk, protection and public health.

Bruno Strasser reading his book The Mask whilst wearing a mask.

Historical Perspectives on Respiratory Protection: The Mask

The new book The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air by After the Single Use researcher Bruno Strasser and co-author Schlich explore how attitudes toward masks reflect deeper cultural, political, and scientific debates.

Rows of different lightbulbs in the Energise Gallery.

24 Jul 2025

Contemporary Technology Collecting

How can contemporary collecting shape our research on single-use plastics while guiding ethical curation, museum collaboration, and future preservation?

A plastic syringe lies next to other plastic medical waste including a enteral feeding bottle

Why are plastic syringes not being recycled?

Academic publications

Billions of plastic syringes end up in waste, fuelling a hidden environmental crisis. The technology to promote safe recycling already exists - if the healthcare sector can move beyond stigma to embrace these solutions.

Team members workshopping the factors leading to the disposability of X-rays.

05 Jul 2025

Contingencies: Researching Disposability in Healthcare through Historical Methods

How did single-use devices become the norm in healthcare - and what paths were lost along the way? Our "Contingencies" workshop explored history, possibilities, and alternative futures.

Blog posts tagged ‘material culture’