We all produce garbage and we all participate in the global solid waste system. Our waste is amazing diverse, yet amazing complex and fascinating. A lot of it gets recycled, but a lot more gets dumped or burnt often in places farther and farther from we live. You might not live in a big city or have your trash picked up nicely from the curb, like Elizabeth Royte talks about, but you will learn countless things about garbage in the book.

Just the art of picking up garbage from people's houses, and taking it to a transfer station is an art in the big city. Segregating wastes then burning or burying the massive quantities of often toxic garbage is another art. It's increasingly been taken over by big business and regulated by government, though as the book notes not nearly enough.

You will be angry after reading this book. You will find that disposing of garbage creates a lot of pollution, from toxics burnt in incinerators that only partially filter out the pollutants to massive metal shredders that leach toxic chemicals out into the soil at scrap yards. You'll find that companies are aware of all the pollution dealing with refuse creates, yet you'll find little economic incentive to do much about it.

Garbage disposal as the book notes is largely secret. After you dump trash or recyclables into the truck at the transfer station, flush your toilet, or have your car hauled off to the junk yard, they don't want you to know what happens next. Some of this is because laws are outright being violated due to cost or impractically, some of it is because if we all knew the trash we were creating we would be embarrassed and self reflective.

You will have a deeper understanding of the global market of solid waste in this book. Yet, it not polemic and does little to encourage a person to action against failed solid waste policies that polluting our environment so badly. The lack of polemic in this book leaves the reader feeling frustrated, yet at same time leads to a readable book that is incredibly clear to read.

This book only scratches the surface of the garbage problem, or as the book concludes, the high-consumption problem. You think the trash you burnt or haul to the curb is a problem, then realize that you can multiply it by all the residues created in the creation of product and the environmental desecration caused by mining. Our society needs to change, and while progressive environmental policies are a start, we need to find even bold solutions.