Book Review

Garbage Land - On the Secret Trail of Trash
Elizabeth Royte

This was kind of a trashy little book. It was just garbage.

The author of this book lives in NYC. She one day up and decided to start tracking all the garbage she was generating. She started weighing and cataloging everything. Then she decided to start following her garbage.

It was interesting hearing her travels with garbage from her street in NYC, all the way to the landfill. She also followed her recyclables. Then she started following the sewage generated. (Everyone needs a hobby, right?)

Basically, when it came right down to it, here is was she decided: If you really want to help generate less of a waste footprint in your life, you need to buy less stuff. A strange topic, it's true, but there it is. No matter how careful you are at home with your waste, if you are a consumer, waste happens just getting your products to you.

It was an interesting book, at least up to the last chapter. (I was playing Catan at Russ's, and struggled through that last chapter.) I can't wait for my next visit to NYC to notice some of the sanitation things that are there. (Like when I read the book on NYC rats, then went to the city and saw all the signs of rats that I would have missed...)