Miller Library

Includes bibliographical references (pages 343-373) and index.

"Dumps and landfills around the world are overflowing. Disputes about what to do with the millions of tons of garbage generated every day have given rise to waste wars waged almost everywhere we look. Some are border skirmishes. Others involve hustling trash across thousands of miles and multiple oceans. But no matter the scale, one thing is true about almost all of them: Few people have any idea they're happening. Journalist Alexander Clapp spent two years roaming five continents -- reporting deep inside the world of Javanese recycling gangsters, cruiseship dismantlers in the Aegean, Tanzanian plastic pickers, whistleblowing environmentalists in the jungle of Guatemala, and a community of Ghanaian boys who burn Western cellphones and televisions for cents an hour -- to tell readers what he has discovered: While some trash gets tossed onto roadsides or buried underground, much of it actually lives a secret hot-potato second life, getting shipped, sold, resold, or smuggled from one country to another, often with devastating consequences for the poorest nations of the world. Waste Wars is a jaw-dropping exposé of how and why, for the past forty years, our garbage has spawned a massive, globe-spanning, multibillion-dollar economy, one that off-loads our consumption footprints onto distant continents, pristine landscapes, and unsuspecting populations. If the handling of our trash reveals deeper truths about Western society, what does the business of garbage say about our world today? And what does it say about us?" Front book flap.

JCM.

ME.