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Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash
Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash
Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash
Audiobook8 hours

Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash

Written by Edward Humes

Narrated by Joe Barrett

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

()

About this audiobook

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, mysterious, and costly journey that may also represent the greatest untapped opportunity of the century.

In Garbology, Edward Humes investigates trash-what's in it; how much we pay for it; how we manage to create so much of it; and how some families, communities, and even nations are finding a way back from waste to discover a new kind of prosperity. Along the way, he introduces a collection of garbage denizens unlike anyone you've ever met: the trash-tracking detectives of MIT, the bulldozer-driving sanitation workers building Los Angeles's Garbage Mountain landfill, the artists residing in San Francisco's dump, and the family whose annual trash output fills not a dumpster or a trash can but a single mason jar.

Garbology reveals not just what we throw away but who we are and where our society is headed. Waste is the one environmental and economic harm that ordinary working Americans have the power to change-and prosper in the process.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 28, 2016
ISBN9781515978763
Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash
Author

Edward Humes

Edward Humes is the author of ten critically acclaimed nonfiction books, including Eco Barons, Monkey Girl, Over Here, School of Dreams, Baby E.R., Mean Justice, No Matter How Loud I Shout, and the bestseller Mississippi Mud. He has received the Pulitzer Prize for his journalism and numerous awards for his books. He has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, and Sierra. He lives in California.

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Reviews for Garbology

Rating: 4.33766225974026 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

77 ratings9 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Sad truth about landfills well exposed. I would love to have more examples of how to be more green though
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow! My wife and I just listened to this book and we wish it was required reading in public schools! We wish every American would read it. It was eye opening and spurred so much interesting discussion. We highly recommend it to EVERYONE!!!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    We have become a consumer culture, a society where disposable is all too common. This book looks at trash and all it entails: landfills, recycling, and what else can be done with it, and/or about it, and/or ideally things we can do to reduce it. Plastic is, of course, a big issue - including the “patch” of plastic floating around the Pacific Ocean (which is apparently more of a soup or chowder (smaller chunks all over the place), rather than a patch where it’s all together in the one spot). I thought this was quite interesting. Some people have actually studied trash (garbologists). There was some history of how landfills got started, and how people traditionally got rid of their trash. Of course, the consumer culture – marketing to promote more and more buying (and also throwing away because we want the new stuff) – came to rise in the 50s, and hasn’t let up. One idea that was new to me (at least in the detail described in this book) was the waste-to-energy idea, turning trash into energy. I have heard of it, but this book went into more detail than I ever knew about it. Denmark and Germany seem to be the forerunners for this, and it sounds like a great idea. Of course, alongside these kinds of ideas, humans really do need to figure out ways to cut down on the amount of stuff we acquire (and subsequently throw away). There was also some info on things some people are doing to cut down on their consumerism and disposables.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book. Humes did extensive research. It's not comprehensive, but it covers many many human aspects and tells the stories of business people, anthropologists, artists, and many more tackling the study of trash.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Inspiring. Life changing
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An interesting, informative, and sobering look at how much waste we produce, where it goes, what impact it has on the environment, and what can be done to lesson the impact.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    “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, indulgence, and obliviousness.Humes’ writing is entertaining and informative. He weaves his narrative so well that it’s quite easy to forget that you’re actually reading about garbage. He also structures this book very effectively—he tells a great deal about the history of waste management in the US, he examines the current garbage crisis, and he offers very practical solutions.Obviously, this book is not for everyone. If you like non-fiction, however, give this one a try. You’ll probably enjoy it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Book review by Skyler T., posted by CA Library:"Garbology by Edward Humes and it is a nonfiction book told as nonfiction. What’s the book about, the books about garbage! Garbology of course no just garbage. The book teaches you about landfills and dumps, and oceans and how garbage impacts them all in a way or two.The book garbology also teaches you about how you can safely and none safely have dumps or landfills. Also how to get garbage out of the ocean and waters. People who are trying to make a difference and help. It tells us how our paper waste can help another country that heeds paper and how someone makes a lot of money from that.This book also tells you stores of people who have been affected by garbage in their life. And how to stop getting garbage, how it can affect more people in the future.This is an all in all good book it does not make you want to stop reading it and it does not make you want to stop because it is boring its actually is pretty interesting ."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    wow, this is a great book to read. In the beginning it shows the reality in USA and the Oceans, landfills, garbage patch in the Pacific and trash tracking devices, later you can learn from other countries and inventive people that there is a way out. Easy to read and full of ideas to make a better life and safe money.