Addressing Waste as an Educational Matter: The Remida in Reggio Emilia Case Study

The large waste material generated by production systems is part of the environmental emergency affecting the planet. While governments address the issue in technical and mechanical ways, the humanities and ecological sciences question what pedagogies can support a paradigm shift in educational thinking and practices. New feminist materialisms put matter, care, and the concept of interdependence between humans and nonhumans at the center of the debate. This article proposes to consider waste as subject-material worthy of listening as a practice of care, analyzing the case study of Remida, a project part of the educational system of Reggio Emilia (Italy). The first part of this contribution presents the pedagogy of listening practice with children in Reggio Emilia schools, within which Remida’s philosophy is situated. The second part examines the activities of the Remida Center between 2021 and 2023, using an ethnographic method. One of the two authors has been carrying out activities in the Remida Center for 12 years, consisting of collecting industrial waste material and proposing it not as an object to be used but as a co-constructor of the educational experience of children and adults. We use data from pedagogical documentation, literature, and direct experiences within the Remida Center. We show that a pedagogy of listening and care extended from children to waste materials helps to see waste as a subject worthy of respect and attention.