Wasteland - The Dirty Truth about What We Throw Away, Where it Goes, and Why it Matters

Ivan Konig writes: This is a fascinating, authentic, meticulously researched, and gripping account of what is transpiring in the world of waste. Oliver Franklin-Wallis has personally visited many of the sites mentioned in the book and engaged in frank discussions with those directly involved. The uncomfortable is often concealed and shrouded in illusion to make it appear rational and objective. "Out of Sight Out of Mind" also operating in tandem with NIMBYISM, assisted by a numbness that takes waste for granted, even when it is not hidden. One Man's waste maybe another man's Treasure for the unfortunate who have no alternative way of supporting themselves. The treasure though largely resides in the organisations paid to dispose of waste, by various means both legal and illegal.

The consequence of wasteful behaviour both institutional and personal, in a short term built-in obsolescent mass consumption society, where it is cheaper to replace rather than repair and the transportation and dumping of waste have huge health implications to countries and communities unable to arrange for proper disposal of the contents arising on their shores. The "Waste Not Want Not" principle and its reverse, rather relegated to the background in the desire for unlimited growth. "Don't Say Jenga" opens the chapter on HAZARD. The enquiry into what has - and is transpiring with nuclear power in Sellafield with the enormous understood damages of addressing waste in nuclear energy, and/or disposal and power generation, now particularly relevant since large financial sums continue to pour into nuclear as a continuing source of (clean?) energy. This is a consciousness worth absorbing and confronting in the 12 chapters of this book for those who care about the consequences of disregarding the way we are living, while attempting remediation.