Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash
by Elizabeth Royte
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth RoyteEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-29
ISBN: 031615461X
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash
Book Review: A less glamorous: All the President's Men
Summary: 4 Stars
What would you get if your doused All The President's Men, with sweet smelling sludge? The result would probably resemble Elizabeth Royte's epic presentation of filth, depicting the journey to its final resting place, showcased for the literary community. Garbage Land takes the reader on a comprehensive journey (emphasize on the word comprehensive) from the New York author's kitchen, to the many places of disposal. Garbage Land, begins with our involvement in the path to disposal. Royte dumps trash-bags on the floor of her New York brownstone, logs it, and than traces each item to its "final destination." Royte brings the reader on garbage trucks, to recycling plants, water/sewage treatment facilities, hazardous waste recycling facilities, incineration facilities, transfer stations, dumps, landfills, and on a scuba dive under the Hudson River. The quick page turner, filled with raw data and statistics, reads like a combination mystery thriller/textbook. Royte a single person, takes on one of the largest industries on the planet. She innocently attempts to visit massive facilities to conduct research. When shut out, Royte sometimes illegally trespassed in order to get her story. There are even instances where she is chased and cursed at. Some parts are so exhilarating and exciting, that the reader may find themselves en-captivated in the seemingly simple quest to achieve access to Fresh Kills and Bethlehem landfills. There are also moments where the reader is lead to believe Royte is breaking into the Pentagon, rather than a dump in Pennsylvania or New York.
One of the more compelling hooks Royte exerts upon the reader, is the concept that she is talking about a subject that most Americans deal with every day, but know very little about. Part of the "fun" is discovering how much we really don't know about something that plays such a large role in our society. Royte is successful at comprehensively describing each step of what has become a vastly unfamiliar process. One of the greatest achievements of Garbage Land, is the genuine respect the reader shares gains for those individuals who (frequently risk their lives) while dealing with the seemingly infinite task of disposing our disposals. The emotional high of the book, exists when Royte exclaims "...one of the most important things I'd learned in the past year, was the name of the people who took away my trash." That awareness and respect for both the process and the workers is probably one of the most resonant messages taken from Royte's work.
While Royte's message is fully formulated, and certainly well backed up, I was overall disappointed about the extent of the overall purpose of her message. While awareness is important, so is action. One of her cornerstone solutions to the "Garbage crisis" is to consume less. While this is an important suggestion, it is not seemingly a mainstream solution. Too often environmentalists spend the majority of their time on a soapbox, and less time helping those achieve realities. Royte spends the majority of her book showing a horrible side of waste disposal, but no real list of ways to make a substantial difference. Garbage Land ends with a somewhat apocalyptic finale: 2% of all waste thrown away is municipal waste. The rest? Industrial waste used to produce the municipal waste. This leaves the reader with somewhat of a "chicken and the egg" predicament. This concept is applied in many scenarios such as with recycling. Royte will have you hating virgin paper, as she describes as "One of the most environmentally harmful industries in the planet." Once you are motivated to begin to recycle, Royte drops the bombshell that recycling only diverts the trash, therefore fails at making large contributions to solve the garbage crisis. In general, Garbage Land consists of almost too much information on identifying the problem, but lacks sufficient evidence on solving the problem. Putting that aside, Garbage Land proves itself to be one of the most "two-sided" and fair "reports" far contrasting to the other work of one sided Environmentalists and Conservationists. While at certain times she will have your head spinning-driving you to think there is no hope- you will not at any point feel that Royte is a great preacher, indoctrinating her message to the masses.
One of Royte's greatest contribution to her book, is her ability of the reader to identify wither her on some level. While watching: An Inconvenient Truth, it is hard to focus entirely on the message, as the orator is one of the most well known faces in politics. But Royte does not have the curse of "stardom" that Gore is plagued with. As she sits on the floor picking through her garbage with her daughter, the reader almost feels as if they were right there next to her. This is reinforced by her quick, conversationalist literary personae. Royte also, at no point, pretends to be a perfect conservationist. While she may have a compost bin, she exclaims that she is only human and has taken the "easy way out" before. One scenario reflects the mindset of many. When she found no safe ways of disposing empty paint cans, Royte (after making sure none of her neighbors saw) gave up and threw them away. Her depiction of her own laziness is an element of every "American Disposer". Because of her strong ability to connect with the reader, her message is inevitably made more powerful.
While at certain points, Garbage Land, feels like an annual report, sprinkled with somewhat excessive amounts of raw data, Royte certainly presents the necessary evidence to depict the harsh realities of our actions. While her book is hardly a flight plan to a "Zero Waste" society; the awareness, and appreciation of each step of the "hidden" process, that each American contributes to, is worth reading: thus allowing each number and statistic to resonate loud and clear.
Summary of Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash
Out of sight, out of mind ... Into our trash cans go dead batteries, dirty diapers, bygone burritos, broken toys, tattered socks, eight-track cassettes, scratched CDs, banana peels.... But where do these things go next? In a country that consumes and then casts off more and more, what actually happens to the things we throw away? In Garbage Land, acclaimed science writer Elizabeth Royte leads us on the wild adventure that begins once our trash hits the bottom of the can. Along the way, we meet an odor chemist who explains why trash smells so bad; garbage fairies and recycling gurus; neighbors of massive waste dumps; CEOs making fortunes by encouraging waste or encouraging recycling-often both at the same time; scientists trying to revive our most polluted places; fertilizer fanatics and adventurers who kayak amid sewage; paper people, steel people, aluminum people, plastic people, and even a guy who swears by recycling human waste. With a wink and a nod and a tightly clasped nose, Royte takes us on a bizarre cultural tour through slime, stench, and heat-in other words, through the back end of our ever-more supersized lifestyles. By showing us what happens to the things we've "disposed of," Royte reminds us that our decisions about consumption and waste have a very real impact-and that unless we undertake radical change, the garbage we create will always be with us: in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we consume. Radiantly written and boldly reported, Garbage Land is a brilliant exploration into the soiled heart of the American trash can.Engineering Books
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