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7th out of 61 books
—
5 voters
Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage
Eat a take-out meal, buy a pair of shoes, or read a newspaper, and you're soon faced with a bewildering amount of garbage. The United States is the planet's number-one producer of trash. Each American throws out 4.5 pounds daily. But garbage is also a global problem; the Pacific Ocean is today six times more abundant with plastic waste than zooplankton. How did we end up w...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
September 1st 2006
by New Press, The
(first published September 1st 2005)
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I read this when it first came out, in 2006, and despite other reviewers' complaints of its dullness, I found it fascinating and extremely readable. And it angered me. One particular chapter I remember most clearly - one that I tend to cite during dinner parties, before I stop myself - is called "The Golden Age of Waste", and deals with the post-war consumer boom in America. Everyone had a kitchen full of shiny new appliances, so advertisers began to convince people they needed a second fridge f...more
Oct 08, 2012
Kevin Quirolo
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Environmental activists and bottled-water drinkers alike.
Recommended to Kevin by:
Berkeley Public Library
This well documented book addresses the absurdly tragic reality of our waste disposal system. The first half is dedicated to the history of garbage in the United States, which would only be interesting to someone interested histories of the mundane. The second half discusses more recent history leading into current practices, which are gripping in their grotesque destructiveness. The chapter on recycling is especially disturbing in its reversal of received wisdom.
It is published by the progressi...more
It is published by the progressi...more
This is an ambitious book about an important and pressing issue: the overwhelming problem of how to deal with our municipal garbage (and, perhaps more importantly, the consumer issues that lead us to having so many discards in the first place). But I have to think that the people who gave the book 4 stars and up are doing so because they believe in the cause and not because the story-telling is so well executed.
I struggled with the description of the modern landfill in the first chapter in part...more
I struggled with the description of the modern landfill in the first chapter in part...more
The four out of five stars reflect that this book accomplished its objective in clear language with solid argumentation. It is dutifully researched, encourages readers (as many like this do) to make ecologically sustainable choices in their day-to-day lives, and outlines a plan for how the dangers resulting from capitalism, consumption, and too much garbage may be overcome. Ultimately Rogers convinces that though personal action is good, something much wider and sweeping such as government initi...more
The first part of this book was hard to get through. In fact, the folks who loaned it to me both put it down after the first few chapters. They warned me that it was depressing, and holy cow they were right. I started it at the same time that I was reading "Where We Stand: Class Matters," and the two ended up complementing each other in an interesting way. bell hooks' discussion of class as it relates to wealth, poverty, materialism and the sharing of resources speaks to the history of American...more
excellent. This book is very factually and at times get drag, but the facts about the history and impact of US garbage are horrific. This book will change the way you choose to purchase and consume. Americans consume way to much garbage, and useless products and packaging. I believe I can not change everything but that one person CAN do so much, and try their hardest not to be one of the billions of people carelessly polluting the earth. It isn't as though our consumption began from need, it beg...more
I choose this book for book critique for my Geography class, I have to say it definately made me look at garbage in a whole new light, mostly in regards to the production of garbage. My biggest complaint about the book was the sheer amount of notes and citations, it was very distracting at times. But in regards to the subject at hand, I suppose facts are necessary. I agree with a few of the other, this book was very depressing, it makes me wonder what we are leaving behind for our children to de...more
"The important thing to remember about landfills is that they're not just an unfortunate byproduct of capitalism; they actually represent the success of capitalism" (152). So Heather Rogers quotes John Marshall. Rogers quotes many waste historians, business insiders, government officials, and grassroots activists in this well researched and written book. She traces the modern conceptions of "garbage" and the disposal of "garbage" from 1800's America when few had many manufactured goods and glean...more
This is an excellent discussion about how the Capitalism has created this huge problem, and how this system has a key tactic of blaming individuals on the responsibility for the environmental degradation, and to displace this responsibility away from industrial production. "Packages do not litter, people do" The author, discuss some historical capitalism examples on greenwashing.
I found Heather Rogers an inspiring author !!!
I found Heather Rogers an inspiring author !!!
My brother suggested I read this book after an email I sent to him bemoaning all the waste our home remodel was regenerating. It's not an engaging text by any means; I found it difficult to read and often had to force myself through a chapter at a time. The history of garbage disposal is an interesting topic - who knew our waste hauler, Waste Management Inc., was the largest hauler in the country? That much of what we so carefully sort and clean for recycling is, literally, trashed because the d...more
The United States generates approximately 230 million tons of garbage every year --about 4.6 pounds per person per day. Gone Tomorrow by Heather Rogers, is an attempt to find out where it eventually ends up and why.
Sure, recycling has become more readily available to the average consumer, but remarkably, a lot of what you and I "recycle" ends up buried or incinerated, along with the non-recyclables. Why? The answer lies with the first part of the waste-reduction mantra "reduce -- reuse -- recyc...more
Sure, recycling has become more readily available to the average consumer, but remarkably, a lot of what you and I "recycle" ends up buried or incinerated, along with the non-recyclables. Why? The answer lies with the first part of the waste-reduction mantra "reduce -- reuse -- recyc...more
The beginning seems to go on forever and is completely depressing... even if one is already recycling and doing their part. The reality of how many are NOT is overwhelming. The references are many but justified (and tried to skim over) but the integrity would be questioned if Rogers did not include them.
lots of useful info for trash maniacs like myself. But sort of oddly written - you can tell it's based on a documentary film first, book second. I did appreciate the author's clear connection between trash culture and capitalism's incessant demand for waste.
The book was not that great for me. It had a lot of information that might be useful for someone that is interested in the History of the garbage life. I liked the pictures and some information but not all of it.
A nice quick read with an insightful look at the social, political, environmental and economic aspects of garbage, to name a few. I will definitely seek out the documentary by the same name that Rogers made before writing this book.
a straight-forward, readable account of what happens to waste when it's disposed in america. rogers begins with some scary facts, and works backwards throughout the history of trash and clean-up for the past 200-ish years. it's not the most exciting book in the world, but it's clear and reasonable, and it makes a strong argument. i found the conclusion particularly useful, when rogers (following a chapter devoted to the ups-and-downs of recycling) makes several compelling suggestions for public...more
I found Gone Tomorrow highly enlightening. I had been completely unaware of the transformation of conceptions of garbage in the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States and the rest of the western world. Most of the book is quite historical, describing incidents from the shift away from pigs as a waste-disposal method in the 1920s to the breakup of the "garbage mafiosi" system in New York in the 1990s. But at its heart this is not a historical book, but an environmental one, with the goal to...more
May 09, 2008
Jabari
marked it as to-read
Enlightening. Confirms once and for all that Waste is a Lie. In America, not only is it a lie but it's also big business. The American Consumer is a deeply conditioned creature, programmed to consume objects contrived by industries that care little or nothing about the diseases that bloom from their toxic culture. But according to Heather Rodgers' research, this wasn't always the case. Next time Waste Management asks you to "Think Green. Think Waste Management", think again. I was delighted to m...more
One of the first I read on waste and our throw away society. It was well done. Also see the companion short film.
This book gave me an understanding of how our thinking (or non-thinking) about garbage has evolved.
Fascinating title and subject, but alas, dry as dirt. Or very old garbage.
Well researched look at the history of garbage. The gal knows her stuff. Some pontificating here and there, and a penchant for ten dollar words in the first few chapters. But get through that and you have a truly eye opening look at how we've been manipulated into paying a high price for trash. Good read.
A dizzying, infuriating look at the world of garbage in America.
Crucial, if not always elegantly composed. A reader on Amazon criticizes this book for not coming up with any solutions to the waste crisis. This is not the case. Only a reader looking for a quick fix to an apocalyptic problem or a beguiling inspirational narrative such as Cradle to Cradle would make this claim. The book underscores that the only way to undo the damage we have done to the planet and to ourselves is to consume less--and thereby to initiate a fundamental, systemic break in the way...more
A book that will make you think...and hopefully act.
I "recycled" a few reviews from here and added a paragraph on this (highly recommended) book into a blog post http://soldbyvolume.blogspot.com/2009...
SCARY STUFF.
Sep 09, 2010
Susan
is currently reading it
school....
I am currently reading this book. It is excellent.
Did you know that:
*Drinking straws are so named because before plastic drinking straws, people used straw (like in barns) to drink through?
*At the turn of the 20th century, there were 3.5 million horses on the urban streets of the United States, each of which excreted 20 pounds of manure and 2 gallons of urine for every eight hour work day.
*Americans produce 30 per cent of the world's garbage
Did you know that:
*Drinking straws are so named because before plastic drinking straws, people used straw (like in barns) to drink through?
*At the turn of the 20th century, there were 3.5 million horses on the urban streets of the United States, each of which excreted 20 pounds of manure and 2 gallons of urine for every eight hour work day.
*Americans produce 30 per cent of the world's garbage
The topic of waste management is definitely being approached from a conflict theorist point of view in this NYT bestseller by Heather Rogers. While it lacks the more metered approach of Rafje and Murphy's "Rubbish" (Univ of Arizona Press, 2001), and is replete with value judgements and one liners, it does fill in some interesting historical gaps with the phenomenon of waste management.
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