“Underburdened” Communities

Waste is built into the American way of life. Yet the problem of what to do with waste remains largely unresolved. Indeed, our entire way of life hinges on overburdening with waste some communities, so that other communities may be underburdened, and thereby enjoy the benefits of clean air, water, and land. Perhaps the most striking thing about the relationship between overburdened communities and underburdened communities is that underburdened is not even an English word. By its very absence, the word underburdened encapsulates the way that environmental privilege is invisible, unproblematized, and unconsidered. This Article draws back the curtain and shows how communities are systematically either overburdened or underburdened, largely along racial and socio-economic lines. By making visible the way that polluted neighborhoods subsidize clean air and water elsewhere, this Article offers suggestions for the kinds of structural changes that will be needed to achieve environmental justice.