BookBrowse Reviews Wasteland by Oliver Franklin-Wallis

Globally, we generate more than 2 billion tons of household waste every year. That annual total includes more than 400 million tons of discarded plastic, more than 50 million tons of electronic waste and an estimated 90 tons of clothing and textiles. In the United States, the world's most wasteful nation, the average person produces a whopping 4.4 pounds of waste every day and throws out some 1,000 pounds of food every year. Worldwide, a full third of all food produced is discarded without being eaten—even as some 820 million people go hungry every day.

In Wasteland, British journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis follows our trash to landfills, recycling facilities, incinerators and dumpsites to track what happens to all the stuff we throw out—and what it does to the planet. It's a journey that takes him from an e-waste processing site in Ghana contaminated with toxins ...