Toxic displacements: An environmental justice perspective on a chemical waste site in Denmark

Abstract

In this article we examine the problem of toxic waste and its entanglements with environmental justice in the Anthropocene from the perspective of Harboøre Tange – the waste site of one of the greatest chemical pollution scandals in Danish environmental history. Drawing on qualitative interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, we show how environmental harms and inequalities are sustained over time through a series of ‘toxic displacements’ that make the consequences of the chemical waste less seen and felt. These findings add to existing environmental justice theories about problem displacement by demonstrating how such displacements take place along both spatial, temporal, and cross-species dimensions.