TRASH TALK

A writer and illustrator examines filthy truths about the global trash system.

In the modern world, garbage is complicated. “For some it’s a treasure, for others it’s invisible, and for more it’s an enormous human and biological hazard,” writes Gottlieb, author of Seeing Science, Natural Attraction, and Everything Is Temporary. In their latest book, Gottlieb examines not only the history of trash and where modern trash goes, but also the many different types of waste that constitute the monolith known as trash. Preindustrial cultures lived close to the waste they produced, and they repaired their possessions, which were made from natural materials. Industrialization changed all that by laying the foundation for modern mass-consumer society, complete with toxin-spewing factories, massive landfills, and incinerators. Gottlieb suggests that in rich countries such as the U.S., these “arms” of the industrial world tend to be invisible, especially to wealthier residents who can choose to live away from the results of their consumption. That invisibility also helps residents to think less about the consequences of throwing away billions of pounds of textiles, paper products, and especially plastics, which, even if “greenwashed” as recyclable, do not make the products eco-friendly or sustainable. In keeping with their desire to raise reader consciousness about the extent of the trash problem, Gottlieb also examines the other, less-discussed but no-less-problematic forms of waste derived from computer manufacturing, hospitals, sewage systems, the funeral industry, and space exploration. Thorough and disturbing but also engagingly illustrated with informal black-and-white drawings, the book reveals how the choices offered as a way out of the trash morass (e.g., recycling) not only are “intentionally confusing” but also do not set up consumers—or societies or the planet—for anything other than failure.

A must-read for anyone who cares about understanding how the Earth got “trashed.”