Amazon Customer: Elizabeth Royte follows the trail of refuse from her household in Brooklyn to its final resting places in landfills, recycling facilities, and sanitation/sewage treatment plants, while expanding each of the topics as to how they are handled in other locations, primarily in the United States. She also does a great job with the history of garbage and sewage, primarily from metropolitan New York.
The book is well researched and well written, blending facts and anecdotal experiences smoothly and coherently. It would have benefited significantly from two changes:
first, better editorial review of the chemistry/physics of waste management, especially with respect to plastics, where she tends to conflate the issues and hazards, and makes errors of fact hat detract from her overall excellent points.
I was also disappointed that she did not really identify countries or communities that are doing exemplary work handling each of the waste streams she discusses. When these are discussed, they are very light on detail. I aslo think the book would have benefited from a list of organizations that could serve as 'next step' points of contact for readers who would like to become...
United States on Nov 27, 2022
Laura: Scritto piuttosto bene
Italy on May 01, 2019
Amazon Customer: Interesting run through consumer waste and disposal in New York (and a bit in other US cities). A personal journey with waste, and some interesting personal relationships. Recommended for garbage geeks and anyone concerned with the environment and the impact we (maybe unintentionally) have.
United Kingdom on Aug 23, 2016
David Ecale: A good attempt by the author to actually trace the flow of her own garbage and other waste through the system of collection, processing, and final disposal. It doesn't quite fully satisfy, but it is a good start on the path of searching out where a person's garbage goes.
Some notes:
1) The author traces the path of her trash through both the recycling and the direct to the landfill dump.
2) On the way to the dump, she follows the garbage trucks (in a ride along) to the Transfer Station & then to the landfill dumps (when she is not allowed as many won't allow access to non-employees).
3) On the recycling side, she does the same, This time with a very good discussion of the economics of recycling. (A special note here is that recycling is basically a loss prone business in the US. Much recycling is repackaged and shipped to China on the return trips of those containers that bring us everything from shoes to cheap toys, all in packaging that must be either recycled, or stuffed into a landfill.)
4) She works on reducing her waste "footprint" by categorizing & sorting her trash. Also, she works on reducing her incoming stream of material (grocery store...
United States on Nov 20, 2014
GregVO: I found this book to be very interesting because I happen to live in Brooklyn from where the author's garbage orginates, so I know a lot of the locales referred to in the book. As I was reading I was wondering if someone outside of NY would agree. I think so.
The introduction explaining her method of how she tracked her garbage by separating and weighing in granular detail was worth skipping for me. This is a personal journey for Elizabeth, so she included many of her feelings as well as methods of experimentation to reduce, re-use and recycle. But the most interesting parts for me were learning how the system works not just here in NYC, but everywhere. The bottom line is that your garbage never really goes away, it just gets moved someplace that you don't see it. She covers all of it, from recycling, to sewage, to waste of all strains. And it's not pretty, folks. It's a matter of time before it comes back to you in some form through dangerous poisons in your drinking water or food, being washed up on a nearby shore, or in the air you breathe.
I personally think her efforts to reduce her own waste footprint, while admirable and noble, is too small to make a...
United States on Aug 29, 2005
| Elizabeth Royte's Garbage Land: A Journey Through America's Disposal System | Sustainable Living: A Guide to Rainwater Harvesting for Beginners | Harvest Rainwater and Reap the Benefits in Drylands and Beyond | |
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| B2B Rating |
79
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97
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96
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| Sale off | $5 OFF | $8 OFF | |
| Total Reviews | 5 reviews | 47 reviews | 14 reviews |
| Paperback | 337 pages | ||
| ISBN-13 | 978-0316154611 | 979-8482212615 | 978-0977246458 |
| Environmental Science (Books) | Environmental Science | ||
| Best Sellers Rank | #1,587 in Ecology #2,105 in Environmental Science #2,305 in Environmentalism | #56 in Waste Management#97 in Water Quality & Treatment#132 in Water Supply & Land Use | #4 in Water Quality & Treatment#5 in Water Supply & Land Use #19 in Landscape |
| Language | English | English | English |
| Customer Reviews | 4.3/5 stars of 219 ratings | 4.3/5 stars of 87 ratings | 4.8/5 stars of 259 ratings |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company; Reprint edition | Independently published | Rainsource Press; 3 edition |
| Item Weight | 10.7 ounces | ||
| Lexile measure | 1250L | ||
| Ecology (Books) | Ecology | ||
| Environmentalism | Environmentalism | ||
| Dimensions | 6 x 0.85 x 9 inches | 5.5 x 0.51 x 8.5 inches; 9.98 Ounces | 8.4 x 0.7 x 10.8 inches; 1.76 Pounds |
| ISBN-10 | 031615461X | 0977246450 |
United States on Oct 06, 2023