Read more
Informationen zum Autor Edward Humes is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author whose sixteen previous books include The Forever Witness, Mississippi Mud, Garbology, and the PEN Award–winning No Matter How Loud I Shout. Ed and his family, including their rescued racing greyhounds, live in Southern California. Klappentext "What happens to our trash? Why are our oceans filling with plastic? Do we really waste 40 percent of our food 65 percent of our energy? Waste is truly our biggest problem, and solving our inherent trashiness can fix our economy, our energy costs, our traffic jams, and help slow climate change--all while making us healthier, happier and more prosperous. This story-driven and in-depth exploration of the pervasive yet hard-to-see wastefulness that permeates our daily lives illuminates the ways in which we've been duped into accepting absolutely insane levels of waste as normal. Total Garbage also tells the story of individuals and communities who are finding the way back from waste, and showing us that our choices truly matter and make a difference. Our big environmental challenges--climate, energy, plastic pollution, deforestation, toxic emissions--are often framed as problems too big for any one person to solve. Too big even for hope. But when viewed as symptoms of a single greater problem--the epic levels of trash and waste we produce daily--the way forward is clear. Waste is the one problem individuals can positively impact--and not just on the planet, but also on our wallets, our health, and national and energy security. The challenge is seeing our epic wastefulness clearly. Total Garbage will shine a light on the absurdity of the systems that all of us use daily and take for granted--and it will help both individuals and communities make meaningful changes toward better lives and a cleaner, greener world"-- Leseprobe 1 Our Disposable Age The innocent question that changed Ryan Metzger's life came the summer his son turned six. That's when Owen asked about the ever-expanding bag of old batteries in the junk drawer. "What's going to happen to them, Dad?" he asked. "What are we supposed to do with them? We're learning about recycling in school. Where do these get recycled?" "Um," Metzger said. "I don't know." He knew where to get batteries, of course-everyone did. And there were always instructions on correctly inserting and using them. But instructions on what to do when they died? Not so much. That's why he fell into the habit of stuffing dead batteries into a drawer filled with all the other small, disused stuff that the family wasn't sure what to do with. As for bigger discards, there was a spot in the basement for those. And all the old paint cans and turpentine and lawn chemicals were collecting dust and rust out in the garage. "It's heavy, Dad." Owen waved the bag of batteries around. It was pretty full, Metzger had to admit. Detritus from flashlights and old toys, smoke alarms and remote controls, with a crusty one that came out of an old toothbrush, these batteries were one of many types of problematic garbage. They had no obvious final resting place, much like garden chemicals, old phones, light bulbs, car parts, cooking grease . . . a ton of stuff, really, now that Metzger thought about it. You weren't supposed to put any of that in the recycling bin. But you couldn't put it with the landfill-bound trash, either, although that's what many people ended up doing out of desperation or not caring or habit-or assuming (incorrectly) it would all somehow get properly sorted out by this impenetrable, mysterious entity called the waste management system. "There's got to be a place for old batteries," Metzger assured his son. "Let's find out." It took three phone calls to find a business near their Seattle home that would take their old batteries and ensure that they were actually recycled instead...
