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A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist takes readers on a surprising tour of the world of garbage.
Trash is America's largest export. Individually, we make more than four pounds a day, sixty-four tons across a lifetime. We make so much of it that trash dominates America's place in the global economy—now the most prized product made in the United States. In 2010, China's number-one export to the U.S. was computer equipment. America's two biggest exports were paper waste and scrap metal. Somehow, a country that once built things for the rest of the world has transformed itself into China's trash compactor.
In Garbology, Edward Humes reveals what this world of trash looks like, how we got here, and what some families, communities, and other countries are doing to find a way back from a world of waste. Highlights include:
• Los Angeles's sixty-story garbage mountain, so big and bizarrely prominent that it has spawned its own climate, habitat, and tour business.
• The waste trackers of MIT, whose "smart trash" has exposed the secret life and dirty death of what we throw away.
• China's garbage queen, Zhang Yin, who started collecting scrap paper in the 1990s and turned it into a multibillion-dollar business exporting American trash to make Chinese products to sell back to Americans.
• Artisan Bea Johnson, whose family has found that generating less waste has translated into more money, less debt, and more leisure time.
As Wal-Mart aims for zero-waste strategies and household recycling has become second nature, interest in trash has clearly reached new heights. From the quirky to the astounding, Garbology weighs in with remarkable true tales from the front lines of the war on waste.
Edward Humes is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author whose eleven previous books include Force of Nature, Eco Barons, and the PEN Award–winning No Matter How Loud I Shout. He lives in Seal Beach, California.
Introduction: 102 Tons (or: Becoming China's Trash Compactor) 1
Part 1 The Biggest Thing we Make
1 Ain't No Mountain High Enough 19
2 Piggeries and Burn Piles: An American Trash Genesis 36
3 From Trash TV to Landfill Rodeos 53
4 The Last and Future Kingdom 75
5 Down to the Sea in Chips 97
6 Nerds vs. Nurdles 115
Part 2 The Trash Detectives
7 The Trash Trackers 131
8 Decadence Now 143
Part 3 The Way Back
9 Pick of the Litter 169
10 Chico and the Man 187
11 Green Cities and Garbage Death Rays 221
12 Put-Downs, Pickups and the Power of No 240
Epilogue: Garbage In, Garbage Out 256
Endnotes 263
Index 269
JimRGill2012
Posted January 28, 2013
“Garbology” will teach you more about trash, waste, and garbage in America than you ever thought there was to know about this subject. For example, waste is big business. Landfills were originally a temporary solution that became a permanent practice. The US is one of the most wasteful nations on the planet. Our current rate of waste production cannot be sustained for much longer. Recycling isn’t nearly as helpful as most people think it is. And all of this is evidence of American selfishness, indulgence, and obliviousness.
Humes’ writing is entertaining and informative. He weaves his narrative so well that it’s quite easy to forget that you’re actually reading about garbage. He also structures this book very effectively—he tells a great deal about the history of waste management in the US, he examines the current garbage crisis, and he offers very practical solutions.
Obviously, this book is not for everyone. If you like non-fiction, however, give this one a try. You’ll probably enjoy it.
Anonymous
Posted July 15, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted March 17, 2013
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist takes readers on a surprising tour of the world of garbage.
Trash is America's largest export. Individually, we make more than four pounds a day, sixty-four tons across a lifetime. We make so much of it that trash dominates America's place in the global economy—now the most prized product made in the United States. In 2010, China's number-one export to the U.S. was computer equipment. America's two biggest ...