Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash

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Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash

4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 · rating details · 285 ratings · 87 reviews

A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist takes readers on a surprising tour of America’s biggest export, our most prodigious product, and our greatest legacy: our trash

The average American produces 102 tons of garbage across a lifetime and $50 billion in squandered riches are rolled to the curb each year. But our bins are just the starting point for a strange, impressive, myst...more

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published April 2012 by Avery

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Jan 31, 2013 Chad rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have this habit of thumbing through the new books in my campus library while waiting for lunch to heat up in the microwave located there. I came across this book like this, read a couple lines, and checked it out. I read the introduction while eating lunch and was immediately fascinated. Having not given much thought to how much trash I personally make and where it goes (I mistakenly thought it just decomposes in the landfill), Garbology opened my eyes to how wasteful our society is.

I could g...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, read-in-2012

Required reading for anyone who makes trash (so ... everyone). A very readable study of our garbage addiction: why we make it, where it goes, and what alternatives there might be. Full of frightening facts and inspiring suggestions, I don't think anyone could read this book and not make some changes. (I now haul home all our work food scraps for my personal compost.) Humes isn't preachy or overly moralistic: he presents the facts, and you can take care of the judgments yourself. This is a wake-u...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, adult-non-fiction

I found some chapters more fascinating than others. The story about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch would make an excellent children's picture book. The section on landfills was also interesting. I do love my two Chicobags, and was surprised they had been targeted in legal battles by Big Plastic. I didn't even know there was a Big Plastic Industry in America. The information about the Waste-to-Energy plants was great!

But I read the last chapter on the Johnson family's life without any plastic w...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Andrew Mutch rated it 5 of 5 stars

You wouldn't think a book about trash and garbage would make for an interesting read. But "Garbology" takes the topic of trash and turns it into a thought-provoking read. The author breaks it down into 12 easy to read chapters each exploring a different aspect of waste and garbage in our culture. You'll learn how the transformation of the United States into a nation of consumers has turned us into a wasteful nation that generates mountains of trash. The author follows a winding path back and for...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Jane rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Garbology" is an eye-opening read. It's also sobering, and I defy any one to read this book without afterwards finding oneself thinking of ways in which to alter one's lifestyle--whether subtly or dramatically--in an effort to reduce one's own waste impact. Humes presents us with unmistakable truths about everyday items, such as the (still) ubiquitous plastic grocery bags. I found the statistics he puts forward about the amount of plastic particles floating (and sinking) in our earth's oceans t...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Chris Demer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: social-commentary, environment

This book is fascinating, and somewhat shocking. The volumes of refuse produced by our consumer society is extraordinary. The average American produces 7 pounds of trash per day - or 102 tons in a lifetime!
In addition to a history of the "garbage problem" and ways it has been addressed(or not) throughout history, the author describes in some detail where our "garbage" goes now. While we can feel complacent in our belief that a vast amount of our trash is now recycled, the actual amount is not gr...more This book is fascinating, and somewhat shocking. The volumes of refuse produced by our consumer society is extraordinary. The average American produces 7 pounds of trash per day - or 102 tons in a lifetime!
In addition to a history of the "garbage problem" and ways it has been addressed(or not) throughout history, the author describes in some detail where our "garbage" goes now. While we can feel complacent in our belief that a vast amount of our trash is now recycled, the actual amount is not great. In addition, some recyclables must travel great distances to be safely recycled. (There are 13 certified locations for recycling cathode ray tubes from old TVs -they are all in China!!!)
In addition, we have been building garbage mountains all over the country (sanitary landfills.) While some of this material does decompose and produce usable gas, much of it takes far longer to decompose than was previously thought. In the meantime, plastic bags "fly" away and end up in streams, rivers and eventually the ocean where they, and multiple other objects are "collected" in gyres formed by currents and winds, causing untold deaths of sea birds and sea creatures. The United States does not look good in comparison with many other developed countries, which: have higher savings and lower credit card debt as a percent of income, and in addition to buying less, have devised better methods of managing waste, including higher percentages of recycling and clean burning for energy production.

While most Americans have an "out of sight, out of mind" attitude and continue to blindly shop for entertainment and discard usable items, there is a growing awareness and need to simply slow down our trash production. This involves a decrease in consumerism and wiser buying habits.

I thought I was a wise consumer and a low producer of trash (and by many standards that may be true), but I have become more aware of the problem and plan to be ever more conscious of what I throw out!

I highly recommend this very readable and important book!(less)

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Jun 05, 2012 Son Dang rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Garbology is a fascinating book that describes the sheer amount of waste we produce and the negative effects that has on everything from the environment to our wallets. Since our society has become so efficient at getting garbage out of the way, we often generate more of it than we think. Two major impacts of this that the book describes are massive landfills and garbage floating in our oceans.

Most of the garbage we produce end up in landfills. Outside of Los Angeles, there is a landfill called...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Cindy Brown Ash rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: best-of-2012

I encountered this book by chance when part of the NPR interview of Edward Humes, author of Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash caught my attention.

In the interview, Humes was talking about Bakelite, an early plastic that was used for billiard balls, piano keys, and telephones -- things that were meant to be durable, and have long, even heirloom-length, lives. He was calm and reasoned, not casting blame but describing a shift in the way materials are used as being problematic. It was imp...more I encountered this book by chance when part of the NPR interview of Edward Humes, author of Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash caught my attention.

In the interview, Humes was talking about Bakelite, an early plastic that was used for billiard balls, piano keys, and telephones -- things that were meant to be durable, and have long, even heirloom-length, lives. He was calm and reasoned, not casting blame but describing a shift in the way materials are used as being problematic. It was impersonal, informative, and assumed intelligence from the audience.

Humes opens the book with an anecdote of elderly hoarders, Jesse & Thelma Gaston, who had been trapped in their own home, by their own trash, for three weeks. He moves further into the story of trash by describing other hoarders, the condition of hoarding, and the media attention it has received in the last few years. His punchline is startling:

"But little if any thought is given to the refuse itself, or to the rather scarier question of how any person, hoarder or not, can possibly generate so much trash so quickly.
Of course, there's a reason for this blind spot: namely, the amount of junk, trash, and waste that hoarders generate is perfectly, horrifyingly normal. It's just that most of us hoard it in landfills instead of living rooms, so we never see the truly epic quantities of stuff that we all discard. But make no mistake: The two or three years it took the Gastons to fill their house with five to six tons of trash is typical for an American couple." (page 3/location 106)

He follows this assertion with a discussion of how much trash the average American generates daily, coming up with an average lifetime production of 102 tons of trash. There is a reasonably detailed discussion of how one estimates that amount, and multiple illustrations for how much 102 tons really is. Aircraft carriers are involved. Which is kind of scary, when you are talking about one person's trash.

Humes then poses three questions: What is the nature and cost of that 102-ton monument of waste? How is it possible for people to create so much waste without intending to do so, or even realize they are doing it? Is there a way back from the 102-ton legacy, and what would that do for us... or to us? (pages 11-12) These three questions form the organizing principles of the book.

Part 1: The Biggest Thing We Make describes how America deals with trash, how it has been dealt with in the past, and some "paths not taken" in the history of American waste management. He talks about the concept of waste and wastefulness, how our natural sense of thrift was overcome by early mid-century advertisers (fans of Mad Men might find this familiar territory), and how the political climate defeats promising policies. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is discussed in (rather depressing) detail. Humes corrected my misconception, a common one, he asserts, that the Garbage Patch (not to mention the other gyres collecting plastic trash in the other oceans) is not an "island" of trash, but a chowder of plastic bits with floating detergent bottles and milk cartons and old toys floating around what ought to be a pristine blue surface thousands of miles from anywhere.

Part 2: The Trash Detectives was perhaps the most depressing section of the book. It's the shortest, because it's the area involving the greatest number of unknowns. It goes against what we might assume, that "someone out there" knows what happens to the cans we put in the recycling, or the printer cartridges that we drop off at Office Depot, but in fact there is not really a clear, readily followable chain for where stuff goes when we're done with it (except the landfill) as there is for how to get it into our hands. Humes does a great job of detailing exactly what is and is not known about trash after its useful life, and although the information itself is depressing, his prose never is. It's informative and occasionally incredulous, but always readable and factual; he is one of us, which is to say, he doesn't exempt himself from the problem.

Part 3: The Way Back was... maybe not so much empowering, given how thoroughly Humes detailed the scope of the problems our trash poses, but certainly hopeful. "Pick of the Litter" details a San Francisco dump and artist-in-residence program that talks about how much is found in the dump, but also how much potential there is for the stuff in there as actual materials. "Chico and the Man" recounts the efforts of a small entrepreneur to create a new kind of reusable shopping bag, and to educate people on the environmental benefits of avoiding plastic shopping bags -- and the gigantic lawsuit that was mounted against him by the plastic bag industry -- and how it was defeated. The remainder of the section talks about the efforts communities around the world and one Marin County, California family of four has been working to reduce their waste, one innovative idea at a time.

If you're interested in treading lightly on the Earth, this book will be interesting and informative. If you've never thought about it before, it's a reasonable place to start; Humes makes a very good case for remaking ourselves into a less wasteful culture as being good for us personally, as well: with less stuff, and better stuff, we can do more, save more, be financially more secure and nationally more secure. The materials we have in our landfills are resources we've paid for and then discarded as though they are valueless. Humes makes a powerfully readable case for the value of our resources, and for renewing our natural tendency to thrift.(less)

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Dec 12, 2012 Rebecca Scaglione (Love at First Book) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash by Edward Humes is a book that has changed my life. Honestly. I ran across this book at the library and picked it up since it looked interesting.

I have always been into recycling, but this book opened by eyes to the waste that surrounds us, and how recycling is only a teeeeeeeensy piece of a solution.

Here are some of the things I learned from Pulitzer Prize Winner Edward Humes:

One out of every 6 large trucks in America is a garbage truck
America has 5%...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who cares at all about the environment

I am usually not much of a nonfiction reader, but I could not put this book down! It's so well written it's a page turner, and it also avoided the pitfall of so many "describe the problem" books that leave you agreeing but with nothing concrete or specific to do. Not here - there's 10 clear steps from an almost zero-waste family on page 255 and the author's top 5 beginning on page 260. (In case you're curious, don't buy bottled water and do use cloth napkins and reusable shopping bags). It conta...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Vy rated it 5 of 5 stars

In describing Puente Hills, America's largest active landfill, Humes says it's "impressive. It's also compelling, revelatory and horrifying all at the same time." Well, that pretty much sums up this book too!

Hume explores what and how much we throw away (102 tons in the lifetime of an average American!) and then what happens to it. Our waste mismanagement system is explained against a historical and political context. This is not just about recycling, composting, and converting garbage to fuel....more

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Jul 16, 2012 Jennie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely fascinating discussion of America's garbage problem. We are just a tiny percentage of the world's population, yet we discard 25% of the world's trash. I already knew about a lot of the issues Humes covers here: the plastic gathering in the ocean gyres; the political fight over banning plastic bags; statistics about trash; opportuinties (or lack thereof) for recycling, etc. What I didn't know was the history of trash and recycling collection in the US; information on a artist-in-reside...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

“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, i...more

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Oct 02, 2012 Mindy rated it 5 of 5 stars

So far, this book is incredibly eye opening. Who would have thought the United States's number one export to China is garbage??? (Which they recycle). And that we toss out so much without a thought as to where it goes to the tune of 102 tons per person over our lifetime.

This obviously reads slower than a novel because of all the science and facts involved. However, it is so interesting. Definitely eye opening! It leaves you thinking for weeks about what you do with your garbage. Not many books...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Mariah Christensen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Before I read this book, I had not given much thought to the waste I personally create. Or to the value that I am wasting.

I thought the stuff that I sent to the landfill was all trash and would just decompose and that was the only way to live in modern society.

I need to think more about my impact and how to change. I started making changes after reading the introduction to the book, but it is just a start. There is more to change. I have been very wasteful. One person can make a difference. I...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Louis Bouchard rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book discusses all aspects of garbage:
What we throw out
How we dispose of it
Landfill engineering
Garbage in the ocean
Recycling
The business of garbage
The history of sanitation
Data mining garbage
Ways to reduce household waste
etc

It's fascinating! Beyond the information presented, the book makes a good case for being less wasteful. The book doesn't so much make a case for our waste being destructive and immoral so much as it makes a case for it being inefficient and unnecessarily costly.
A couple...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Kristi Thielen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent, articulate book with insightful and enjoyable information about trash: where it goes, what it does when it gets there (and what it often doesn't do - like decompose), what garbage experts learn from our trash (we eat less healthy food than we claim; we eat MUCH more unhealthy food that we claim)and what we need to do to deal with accumulating trash.

Stats showing where the U.S. stands with regard to trash and recycling, compared to the rest of the world, are sobering. Germany sends 66...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Jared rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: common-reading-program-finalists

Wow, when I logged in to Goodreads to post my review after reading this book I was shocked to see all the 5 and 4 star ratings. When I read the introduction, I was really fascinated. But, in the end I didn't care for this book at all. Did it have some interesting facts? yes. Did it have some interesting anecdotes? sure. But, overall, it was a 20 page manuscript turned into a 300 page book. For me it just dragged on and on and on. There are just so many ways you can say the same thing over and ov...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Jessica Alverson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting book, but in the course of reading, I realized that I had already read a better book about garbage--Garbage Land by Elizabeth Royte. If you are interested in tracing where your trash and recycling go and what the actual environmental costs of both your garbage and recyclables is, read the Elizabeth Royte book. You'll be surprised. (Apparently, the amount of energy used to transport and convert recyclables may at sometimes outweigh the potential benefit.) However, Humes has a valid po...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Craig rated it 4 of 5 stars

The average American produces seven pounds of waste per day, for a total of 102 tons per person over the course of a lifetime. The average American uses 500 plastic bags per year, one time use items that will be around for generations to come. The math presented in this book makes it pretty apparent that the current consumer culture will come to an end - hopefully as a result of prudent planning rather than catastrophe. The book manages to be sobering rather than utterly depressing. While there...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

I can't really say that I loved this book because it was just too scary. I guess you can't really change anything without first truly seeing what the problem is. And this book is an eye-opener.

There was one thing I wish the author had addressed. He talked plenty about the disposable economy and how waste is a factor of this thinking. I've thought a lot about that in the past. But I always run into a stumbling block in my head of what happens to our economy if we all eliminate the waste. Even th...more

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May 22, 2012 Hadrian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: environment, nonfiction

Incisive journalist's overview of the problems of overconsumption and waste. Terrifying description of the Plastic Garbage Island of the Pacific and offers an interesting and firm refutation of official consumption figures. 102 tons per person per lifetime - rather scary stuff.

Now some of the worst offenders in the US are going away - newspapers and phone books, which consist of the majority of paper waste, are rapidly declining in circulation - there has been a decline in that regard. The incr...more

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May 09, 2012 Joanna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh my goodness! I had no idea how readable a book about GARBAGE could be! And so gripping! I now find it my new mission to knit/crochet grocery bags for everyone I know out of yarn I already have (thereby reducing my personal footprint). Seriously, though, this book has opened my eyes to the whole idea of trash and recycling, energy and our future. Heard about Garbology on Fresh Air, can't thank NPR enough (for this and so much more). I'll continue to listen for insightful reading suggestions. G...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Natasha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sitting on the "just in" shelf in my library, the title caught my attention and curiousity got the best of me. Garbology should be sent to every household in America. Every person tosses trash away with no regard to where it is going..."out of sight, out of mind." Unfortunately, even with many of us recycling, there is just so much trash at landfills destroying beautiful land, polluting oceans and our air, and endangering animals. Reading Garbology has me thinking of ways that I can be less of a...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Karen Douglass rated it 5 of 5 stars

A life changing read: I am on a mission to convert to plastic free living. It's not going to be easy, but Humes has convinced me that I don't need to cause so much trash and I'll start by eliminating my use of plastics. Ironically, I stopped at a local "green" grocery store and could find very little to buy. I did find toilet paper wrapped in paper and yogurt in a glass jar (plastic lid, but reuseable) and milk in cartons, but with that plastic pour spout. Sorry, I meant to rave about the book,...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Ryan Johnson rated it 2 of 5 stars

Why only two stars? The information presented wasn't all that eye-opening. Almost anyone who would be reading this book knows that people (American's especially) are wasteful. The barrage of numbers and anecdotes supports this reality, but at the same time makes for a dry and depressing read.

I found chunks of this book hard to get through and I felt I was reading it more out of obligation (for book club) than for enjoyment. At times the writing jumped around and at other times it just dragged o...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Tamra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: north-america

The book raises the question, Why do we need so much stuff? And then, What do we do with it when we're finished with it? And finally, How do we find our way out of this? Garbage is embedded in our lifestyle, but it doesn't have to be that way. The author offers several inspirational stories that can serve as models for the rest of us. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it.

Here's another idea: Instead of a one-way economy that ends up in the dump, how about a circular economy? Check out this...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Donna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a great book with some real eye opening information.I think everyone should read this book because it is truly a behind the scenes look at something that involves each of us, every day. Secondly, I dare anyone to read this book and not change the way they view, and contribute, to the looming problem of garbage disposal. During the time it took to read this book(approximately 10 days) I adjusted my own habits to the extreme and found that I had a considerably smaller amount of trash to p...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Nina rated it 5 of 5 stars

7/2/12-I am almost finished with this book. I selected it after hearing a discussion on it on NPR. I also am highly interested in trying to be a more responsible inhabitant of the Earth. It started off slow for me, but then really picked up. I was fascinated by things I wasn't familiar with such as nurdles (tiny pieces of plastic that float in the ocean and land on the beaches). A great read for anyone who wants to be more conscientious of what we are placing out into our world.

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Mar 17, 2013 Tianna Mignogna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I went back and forth between loving and feeling meh about this book. I'm usually a fan of nonfiction having more narratives as opposed to statistics, but the statistics worked better than the narratives did in this book. The narratives were sort of rushed and not a lot of detail was given to each one, although that may be the creative nonfiction lover in me. This book definitely raises awareness about the huge issue that is our trash and that will immediately intrigue you if you're a recycling...more

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About Edward Humes

Edward Humes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is the author of nine books of nonfiction, most recently, Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for Americas Soul and Over Here: How the G.I. Bill Transformed the American Dream. His next book, "Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet," will be out next year."

More about Edward Humes...

Books by Edward Humes

Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul

No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court

Mississippi Mud: Southern Justice and the Dixie Mafia

School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School

Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet

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“There are, in short, a multitude of ways for trash to escape and plastic to go missing. But there is only one ultimate end point for this wild trash: the greatest future, the biggest surface, the deepest chasm, the broadest desert and the largest burial ground on the planet. It's the ocean.” — 1 person liked it

“Average household credit card debt topped the landmark of $10,000 in 2006, a hundredfold increase over the average consumer debt in the 1960s. One consequence: Much of the material buried in landfills in recent years was bought with those same credit cards, leading to the quintessentially American practice of consumers continuing to pay, sometimes for years, for purchases after they become trash.” — 1 person liked it

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