105th out of 565 books
—
842 voters
Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash
Out of sight, out of mind ... Into our trash cans go dead batteries, dirty diapers, bygone burritos, broken toys, tattered socks, eight-track cassettes, scratched CDs, banana peels.... But where do these things go next? In a country that consumes and then casts off more and more, what actually happens to the things we throw away? In Garbage Land, acclaimed science writer E...more
Paperback, 311 pages
Published
August 29th 2006
by Back Bay Books
(first published 2005)
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Apr 18, 2011
Petra X
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
People who read anything, even cereal packets
Shelves:
popculture-anthropology
This is a very dense book that appears to cover every possible aspect of garbage disposal and recycling in New York in particular and California and other states in general. Its quite interesting and very worthy and ... ultimately meaningless as a statistic towards the end reveals that only 2% of all garbage is household waste. The rest of it is industrial, primarily manufacturing and commercial, mostly restaurants and fast food outlets. One of the quite shocking (if you imagine this planet weig...more
May 21, 2008
Kirby
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
litterbugs, global warming skeptics, people who watched roc
Shelves:
wonktastic
The set-up is straightforward. Royte follows her trash wherever it leads her: to the sanitation truck, to the waste transfer station in Bayridge, to private landfills in Bethlehem, PA, to waste-to-energy facilities in Newark, NJ, to paper/metal/plastic recycling facilities in Staten Island, Jersey City, and Long Island respectively, to her neighbor's composting bin, to the water treatment plants in Owls Head, and yes, she even follows the trail of her poo to Hunts Point in the Bronx. (That is de...more
I have been told to read this book for months and months. Finally got around to it, and I am so glad I did. Garbage Land is a completely accessible, extremely well written contemporary history of the garbage industry, with chapters on landfills, composting, glass recycling, plastics (called 'the devil's resin'), etc. I learned so much from reading this book. It includes great ideas for future sustainability, like making manufacturers responsible for disposing of the materials their goods come in...more
This is a fascinating book about the path our trash and recycling take once they leave the bins outside our houses. I found the author a bit critical, aka mean, in her writing of the people she encountered that were 'in the business' of trash. She wasn't critical of what they did, rather, how it was they looked. If I read one more description of a "rounded faced man" I would have had to close the book for good. These repetitive descriptors distracted me from the topic at hand.
Overall, I think s...more
Overall, I think s...more
This was a timely and much needed contemporary look at garbage and how our wasteful consumerist lifestyle physically affects us and the rest of the world. I respect the 'fieldwork' that Mrs. Royte pursued in getting her story across and I can see how this might be fascinating to an upper middle class city dweller who almost never sees how their refuse interacts with the environment but to the rest of us exburb/country folk it's pretty obvious. We live near landfills and can see the process happe...more
Royte, a New Yorker, attempts to follow all of her trash, recyclables, and even human waste to its ultimate end point in this book that examines the many options we have for cleaning up -- or passing the buck on -- the waste we create as a species. On the plus side, the book really challenges assumptions about the extent of the positive impact of actions like recycling. On the downside: Royte is very into lists of numbers that make you zone out, and the physical description of one waste collecti...more
I remember when I was a kid I got into trouble for throwing a battery into the regular trash. “But why, daddy?” I asked. “It's garbage.” My dad said, “Because when the battery gets old, it leaks, and acid comes out. The acid is toxic and very bad for the environment.” He put the battery into a paper bag marked “dead batteries” and told us that if we ever found any batteries lying around and if they tested negative, we should toss them into the bag so he could take them to a local facility that r...more
I was impressed by this book in terms of both writing and content. I think garbage and waste management are very interesting topics, but I wasn't expecting this book to offer such a compelling perspective!
One of the best things about Royte is that she has such a hands-on approach and a very adventurous spirit. One of her personal projects that we learn about early on is that she's weighing her garbage on a daily basis on her kitchen floor -- with rubber gloves and her 3-year-old daughter. The bo...more
One of the best things about Royte is that she has such a hands-on approach and a very adventurous spirit. One of her personal projects that we learn about early on is that she's weighing her garbage on a daily basis on her kitchen floor -- with rubber gloves and her 3-year-old daughter. The bo...more
I picked this book up because I thought it sounded fun. What happens to our trash? How is it ultimately disposed of? What are the plans for digging our way out of our filth in the future? I have a “Wall-E” complex when it comes to envisioning an apocalyptic ending to our time on this planet as a result of our poor waste management. “Don’t sh*t where you eat” is starting to sound like the words of some ancient prophet who has foreseen our wicked ways. “Be sure your sh*t will find you out.” And, n...more
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Now more than ever, I am horrified by my trash. I like books that make me re-examine the way I think about the world. This is one of those books. After reading this book, I am even more disheartened about what I can do to shrink my impact on the planet (but I will still be vigilant and make every effort!)
This book is an eye-opener to the long-lasting effects of garbage and even recycling. The writer's style is casual and conversational, and manages to treat a heavy subject with some levity, but...more
This book is an eye-opener to the long-lasting effects of garbage and even recycling. The writer's style is casual and conversational, and manages to treat a heavy subject with some levity, but...more
I'm going to have some reflection on where all this stuff really goes before I throw away.
I think one of two thing will happen while you read through this book:
1. You're going to feel slightly vindicated as you don't recycle
2. You're going to fee slightly disappointed as you do recycle
Recycling I guess is a good thing. Royte makes it sound as if paper and metal are the only things worth recycling. Plastic has too many variations which cannot be mixed; and requires further energy to melt into so...more
I think one of two thing will happen while you read through this book:
1. You're going to feel slightly vindicated as you don't recycle
2. You're going to fee slightly disappointed as you do recycle
Recycling I guess is a good thing. Royte makes it sound as if paper and metal are the only things worth recycling. Plastic has too many variations which cannot be mixed; and requires further energy to melt into so...more
Wow. 300+ pages about garbage is a bit much (a somewhat slow read), but the big picture at the end was well worth it. It's one of those books that make you want to change the world.
I expected this book to list the importance of recycling to "save the earth" but ended up with the "oh, DUH!" moment that the only way to save the earth is to cut back on consuming SO MUCH STUFF. We make toxic (and non-toxic) things everyday (chemical cleaners, computers/cell phones, plastics wrappers, useless McDonal...more
I expected this book to list the importance of recycling to "save the earth" but ended up with the "oh, DUH!" moment that the only way to save the earth is to cut back on consuming SO MUCH STUFF. We make toxic (and non-toxic) things everyday (chemical cleaners, computers/cell phones, plastics wrappers, useless McDonal...more
Written by a New Yorker who wanted to see what happened to the garbage she generated, Garbage Land follows trash, recycling, compost, and sewer waste through processing plants and to their ultimate destinations, wherever they may be. This book confirms the fact that Americans generate unfathomably huge amounts of trash, and the amounts are staggering. It describes many of the problems inherent with recycling programs, and talks about why plastics, for example, are rarely actually recycled. (The...more
I want to like this! I think it's a worthy subject, and one I'd like to know more about.
But I just can't keep reading.I'm about half way through. I think it's a little TOO detailed, with long discussions of the problems and challenges of certain kinds of waste disposal. I was hoping for a bit more narrative, a bit more authorial voice and 'adventure of trash discovery'. And it's actually an amazingly well-researched and reported discussion of trash in America, where it comes from, and how we dea...more
But I just can't keep reading.I'm about half way through. I think it's a little TOO detailed, with long discussions of the problems and challenges of certain kinds of waste disposal. I was hoping for a bit more narrative, a bit more authorial voice and 'adventure of trash discovery'. And it's actually an amazingly well-researched and reported discussion of trash in America, where it comes from, and how we dea...more
The book is written by a journalist in the New York City area that follows her household garbage to it's final destination - including landfills, recycling centers, compost facilities, etc. I really appreciate her writing style in that she included her own thoughts as she did the facts. It makes a book that covers a mundane topic (to most) very witty and revealing. She uncovers the secret paths of garbage as a detective a crime mystery. I learned many random and interesting things that I thought...more
I finished Garbage Land yesterday. It's definitely worth reading despite the unpleasant topic. Although I felt a little queezy everytime I read the words "garbage juice."
I was struck most when Royte suggested that the push for people to recycle, or participate in beach cleanups, etc. are ways that companies and manufacturers shift the blame for waste from themselves to individual citizens. The author notes that for every 100 pounds of product, 3,200 pounds of waste are generated. She calls for a...more
I was struck most when Royte suggested that the push for people to recycle, or participate in beach cleanups, etc. are ways that companies and manufacturers shift the blame for waste from themselves to individual citizens. The author notes that for every 100 pounds of product, 3,200 pounds of waste are generated. She calls for a...more
Elizabeth Royte opens the book by chronicling her own desire to remove the impact of her garbage footprint. I like that she discusses her struggles in weighing her own trash, figuring out what could be recycled, and also what could be reused. However, as the book continues, the reader gets overwhelmed with too many stats. I found myself skipping through places where it seemed like she was quoting from too many different sources about the impact of trash. Ultimately, I also found this book to be...more
Scared the pants off me, as any good book about the degradation of our environment by buffoons and industry should. The only thing that holds me back from a perfect review of this book is that a) I felt Royte got too cynical in the final chapters, but perhaps that is because she started her project foolishly optimistic. I adore foolish optimists and so when she was eventually foiled, perhaps I, as the reader, was as well. Fast, funny and spanning time and industry, Garbage Land makes the garbage...more
Royte did a great job to blend a story of recent waste history with current and future waste issues. She does makes every attempt to track her trash. Even though she is blocked at many phone calls, Royte continues to follow the trails with anyone willing to let her ride along. So, most good reads should bring some kind of epiphany or deeper meaning. This book has many aspects to consider in life. For example, I have tried to go one day without depending on plastic - verdict, currently impossible...more
This book changed my life. That's a big claim to make, but I don't think that I have ever read anything else that affected my daily life so profoundly. Elizabeth Royte's exploration of what happens to the things we throw away had me thinking about every item that I buy or discard. She covers topics ranging from our overflowing landfills to plastic pollution. Sounds like a downer, but Elizabeth Royte makes trash fascinating. Plus, her humorous accounts of the people who work behind the scenes on...more
Homes didn't used to even have garbage cans 125 years ago -- everything was reused, sold to local businesses to make soap, or composted. Now, whether waste is recycled, burnt or landfilled, the short story is, it's a huge problem for the city and the environment. Landfills inevitably leak harmful chemicals into the environment. Even if you recycled 100% of everything you bought, it takes 7 to 20 times as much waste to produce an item as the end product. The short short story is, reduce consumpti...more
An interesting, if somewhat overlong, look at where our trash goes. It reads a bit like a New Yorker article expanded to several hundred pages - after a few chapters of visits by the author to some or other landfill, I started to lose interest. Still, there are enough engaging and informative vignettes to make it worth a read.
I was worried the book would make me feel terribly guilty about every scrap of paper I throw away, but it's not a polemic, and deals pretty fairly with the various tradeoff...more
I was worried the book would make me feel terribly guilty about every scrap of paper I throw away, but it's not a polemic, and deals pretty fairly with the various tradeoff...more
Relatively exhaustive account of one woman's interest in and examination of her trash and "other" waste. The style is smug and the author is quite proud of herself for the "revelations" she uncovers--she seems to consider every person with whom she deals to be argumentative or unaware or phony--but I still found the work to be eye-opening and have some significance. I, for one, will never look at my trash the same, which is a terrible state for me personally, but perhaps an infinitesimal benefit...more
Abandoned. I read the first 100 pages or so, about the author's efforts to follow her own trash to the landfill, and then dipped into various sections in the back on plastics, human waste, and recycling, but I don't think I can possibly read through this dull thing. For me the problem is that it is a very specifically personal book: it is not about what happens to trash in general, it is about the NYC-based author's experiences in attempting to trace the fate of her personal trash. Maybe she was...more
Apr 15, 2011
Marieke
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Marieke by:
my bookshelf
i learned a lot--i had some cynical suspicions confirmed but i also learned to see some things from a different perspective. some things made me feel secure about how i do certain things, others made me feel like i could do better (when can i get a composting toilet installed?? and a gray water system? i'd love to have a couple of "ponds" in my garden!). i definitely think manufacturers can do better and should be held accountable. i feel much less complacent now and i'm definitely tuned in to w...more
"If the rest of the world consumed and threw items away at the same rate as the United States, we would need 4 more Earths".
Garbage Land is a personal and sociological look at America's trash.
This book has made me reconsider how my everyday habits and activities create waste, both directly and indirectly. Like most other individuals, I have taken trash collection and recycling for granted. By throwing items int he garbage, I removed them from my living area and thoughts alike. However, I am now...more
Garbage Land is a personal and sociological look at America's trash.
This book has made me reconsider how my everyday habits and activities create waste, both directly and indirectly. Like most other individuals, I have taken trash collection and recycling for granted. By throwing items int he garbage, I removed them from my living area and thoughts alike. However, I am now...more
Landfills worry me. I mean, it just can't really work to throw all kinds of toxic whatever into a hole in the ground and expect it to be OK. Elizabeth Royte went on a journey to find out what happens to the stuff she bags up and puts at the curb.
The book explores landfill-bound garbage, recycling facilities, and sewage; I appreciated the breadth, although it did mean that there weren't as many details about each item as I might hope. Still, the book is comprehensive and provides a garbage-bag's...more
The book explores landfill-bound garbage, recycling facilities, and sewage; I appreciated the breadth, although it did mean that there weren't as many details about each item as I might hope. Still, the book is comprehensive and provides a garbage-bag's...more
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Elizabeth Royte is a science writer and editor.
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