Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters

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Oliver Franklin-Wallis is an award-winning magazine journalist, whose writing has appeared in GQ, WIRED, The Guardian, the New York Times, The Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Economist's 1843 magazine, and many other publications. I understand I can change my preference through my account settings or unsubscribe directly from any marketing communications at any time. Its strongest parts are when Franklin-Wallis walks with those contributing to, or affected by, the failures, injustices and complexities of dealing with waste .

A must read for everyone, since waste is an issue that has been abstracted for most and is one that we ignore to our peril. With his investigative chops and contagious curiosity, Oliver Franklin-Wallis has cracked wide a dozen hidden, jaw-dropping worlds. In fact, the book makes it clear I might as well just have consumed those electronics and clothes and other consumer products because industry will produce them anyway and just send the unsold excess straight to waste.

There is an ungodly amount of information that there is no way to totally absorb but like I think very necessary. Both shocking and hopeful, Wasteland is the timely and ultimately human story at the heart of an urgent global issue. Here’s this book’s takeaway: Do what we as consumers can do and should do to keep Our Mother safe and healthy - even though it may not do any good. Does that mean we shouldn’t resell our stuff and try to extend the life of things wherever possible?

Among the industrial-scale horrors, Franklin-Wallis finds warm and bright characters whose lives have become inextricably woven into the waste stream. This book made me feel bleak, but it did end on a note that did convince me that while our current recycling practices are highly flawed, it’s still the best we got. It’s thought that 25 percent of all clothing made is never sold" but instead thrown away by the companies. But this book offers some (maybe prohibitively expensive) solutions, and that is delightful in itself! My sister, being both older and a tattle-tale, threatened to tell if I didn't stop looking at those disgusting pictures.For a topic that most of us rarely give much thought to, he captured my attention from start to finish.

Even though I'm withholding the last star because the author didn't quite succeed in this (and when he didn't, he stumbled pretty hard), I particularly appreciated the mostly nuanced takes on good and bad practices, and the repercussions of policy and strategy changes that are almost never thoroughly thought through (yeah, sorry about that, I couldn't help myself. planned obsolescence: “We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing rate. The author talks some about the people he meets in the garbage business, but thankfully that didn't ruin the book for me.

From the very first pages you will realise that this is not only an important topic, but a fascinating one. After all, our 'modern economy is built on trash', as the author convincingly demonstrates in each chapter. Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Even though he’s a UK author and many of the examples are from his end of the world, there were still enough general issues mentioned that affect all of us as humans on earth. An eye-opening account of the global waste crisis—and how our throwaway culture is trashing the planet.

It is, by any measure, a miraculous element: a single pellet barely larger than a multivitamin can generate as much energy as a ton of coal, without any direct carbon emissions. I want to give this book to everyone in my life - especially people who think caring about where their trash goes isn’t worth the effort. The author doesn't mention any nudie magazines, but I'm sure I'm not the only one to have been thrilled by such a find. Waste is not the most appealing subject for a book," admits Oliver Franklin-Wallis in the introduction. Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Book Group for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.This deadly radioactive material still has the possibility of harming 300 generations later so what we do with it has to take into account a changing world. His access to the places that bury, sort, burn and treat the world’s waste is impressive, considering that hardly anyone in the industry was willing to talk to him .