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Waste
Waste is one of the planet’s last great resource frontiers. From furniture made from up-cycled wood to gold extracted from computer circuit boards, artisans and multinational corporations alike are finding ways to profit from waste while diverting materials from overcrowded landfills. Yet beyond these benefits, this “new” resource still poses serious risks to human health and the environment. In this unique book, Kate O’Neill traces the emergence of the global political economy of wastes over the past two decades. She explains how the emergence of waste governance initiatives and mechanisms can help us deal with both the risks and the opportunities associated with the hundreds of millions – possibly billions – of tons of waste we generate each year. Drawing on a range of fascinating case studies to develop her arguments, including China’s role as the primary recipient of recyclable plastics and scrap paper from the Western world, “Zero-Waste” initiatives, the emergence of transnational waste-pickers’ alliances, and alternatives for managing growing volumes of electronic and food wastes, O’Neill shows how waste can be a risk, a resource, and even a livelihood, with implications for governance at local, national, and global levels.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published September 4, 2019
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322 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 20, 2022
I think this book is perfectly designed as an academic literature review; the book is packed so densely with a wealth of knowledge and countless facts. If your looking for a deep dive this is the book; and highly recommended for all environmental academics.
I wouldn't recommend it to people casually interested in their environmental impacts, you can get just as much from this book by watching some documentaries. Sometimes there are so many facts coming at you it's daunting because if your not taking notes all those facts are somewhat burdening.
I wouldn't recommend it to people casually interested in their environmental impacts, you can get just as much from this book by watching some documentaries. Sometimes there are so many facts coming at you it's daunting because if your not taking notes all those facts are somewhat burdening.
November 22, 2019
Felt a bit more like a research article than a book. The book is packed with great facts and excellent research. Thank you for your pursuit in environmental research!
August 27, 2024
We humans use a lot of resources, and in the process, create a lot of waste – far more than you might imagine. In her book Waste, Berkley professor Kate O’Neill provides a deep look at all the stuff that gets tossed. Some of what she reports is surprising, some scary, and much of it pretty damn sad.
Technically speaking, waste is what we do not want, or fail to use. But it’s also more than that. Waste is a global resource, a livelihood, and a source of risk – to our health, the environment, and to waste workers. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have created 30 trillion tons of waste. We are running out of space to put waste, and we will not reach “peak waste” until the next century. As long as it’s cheap and easy to impose our waste on others living thousands of miles away, technology will not solve our waste problems.
There are many different streams of waste, including municipal, industrial, agriculture, forestry, construction, mining, hazardous and nuclear waste. Industrial waste is 18 times greater than municipal waste. Globally, the largest waste category is green waste, including food waste, at 44%.
O’Neill describes the dynamic global waste economy. Globally, there are over 20 million informal waste workers. At many huge global dumpsites, thousands of “waste pickers” living amongst the trash. These workers face extreme health hazards, including toxins, smoke and chemicals.
Discarded electronics are a cornerstone of the global waste economy. Workers dismantle old electronics for valuable metals, while facing exposure to mercury, lead and other toxins. A surprisingly large amount of e-wastes gets refurbished and resold, allowing many in the developing world to afford technology. However, built-in obsolescence in non-repairable gadgets shorten product life and make refurbishing extremely hard, adding to our waste problem. O’Neill argues that new policies to make manufacturers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, including take-back, recycling and final disposal, are very much needed.
Food waste is a growing problem. Waste occurs all through the food chain. Roughly one-third of food produced for humans is wasted, valued at close to $1 trillion dollars a year. Fruits and vegetables have the highest waste percentages, at over 50% in the US. Also, 20% of meat and dairy, and 35% of fish are wasted. Over one quarter of the world’s agricultural land produces food waste. A tremendous amount of fresh water is wasted, and the carbon footprint of wasted food is huge. Only 3% of food waste gets composted.
This really surprised me: date labels are the most common reason people toss food. These labels are voluntary and meant as an indicator of flavor as much as spoilage. Labels are not standardized, and can be very confusing to consumers. O’Neill stresses that changing date labels would greatly help avoiding food waste.
The plastics industry touts its role in preventing food waste. Yet, much of the most difficult to recycle plastic comes in the form of food packaging, especially soft films and plastic bags.
Plastics have flooded the oceans and worked their way into our bloodstream. Plastic products take anywhere from 5 to 1,000 years to breakdown, and even then, the resulting microplastics basically last forever. In the Pacific Ocean, in an area about twice the size of Texas, lies a pool of at least 79,000 tons of floating plastic.
In 2017 the UN declared plastics in the oceans a planetary crisis. Some actions are being taken, but not nearly enough. O’Neill discusses different solutions, such as worldwide bans and restrictions for single-use plastics, or the quest for alternatives and substitutes. But replacing plastics is going to be extremely hard. Clearly people like to use plastics, and old habits are hard to break. Plus, Big Business produce plastics, including chemical companies, such as Dow and DuPont, and oil companies such as Exxon. These highly-polluting industries have the deep pockets to fight off change that would lower their profits.
Deviously, it was the plastics industry that lobbied hard for the labeling system we see on the bottom of plastics, numbering from 1 to 7. Only those labeled 1 and 2 are easily recycled. The others likely won’t ever get recycled, yet us consumers feel good when we toss them into our recycle bin, not realizing they are effectively contaminating the recycle and heading for a landfill. We love plastics. Over 300 million tons of plastic waste are generated annually.
In 2018, China changed its policy and prohibited imports of plastic waste, siting a new policy of “no more foreign garbage.” This has caused a problem for American recyclers. Currently, in the US, less than 10% of plastic is recycled. About 15% is incinerated, and the remaining 75% goes to landfills. Simply put, recycling of plastics isn’t working. The real solution is developing substitutes and alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastics of all kinds.
O’Neill concludes here book with some optimism, including describing many governance innovations and experiments currently in-work, albeit with only marginal success. As consumers, O’Neill provides us several options. We can modify our consumption habits to reduce waste. We can keep a close eye on what’s happening within our government, and not let Big Business prohibit governmental action to reduce waste and restrict single-use plastics. We can lobby to allow for electronic devices to be repaired. “Zero waste” communities have succeeded in a few places, proving we can do it. But like most everything, changing habits will take time and effort from us all.
Although a bit of an academic read, reading Waste is definitely not a waste of time.
Technically speaking, waste is what we do not want, or fail to use. But it’s also more than that. Waste is a global resource, a livelihood, and a source of risk – to our health, the environment, and to waste workers. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have created 30 trillion tons of waste. We are running out of space to put waste, and we will not reach “peak waste” until the next century. As long as it’s cheap and easy to impose our waste on others living thousands of miles away, technology will not solve our waste problems.
There are many different streams of waste, including municipal, industrial, agriculture, forestry, construction, mining, hazardous and nuclear waste. Industrial waste is 18 times greater than municipal waste. Globally, the largest waste category is green waste, including food waste, at 44%.
O’Neill describes the dynamic global waste economy. Globally, there are over 20 million informal waste workers. At many huge global dumpsites, thousands of “waste pickers” living amongst the trash. These workers face extreme health hazards, including toxins, smoke and chemicals.
Discarded electronics are a cornerstone of the global waste economy. Workers dismantle old electronics for valuable metals, while facing exposure to mercury, lead and other toxins. A surprisingly large amount of e-wastes gets refurbished and resold, allowing many in the developing world to afford technology. However, built-in obsolescence in non-repairable gadgets shorten product life and make refurbishing extremely hard, adding to our waste problem. O’Neill argues that new policies to make manufacturers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, including take-back, recycling and final disposal, are very much needed.
Food waste is a growing problem. Waste occurs all through the food chain. Roughly one-third of food produced for humans is wasted, valued at close to $1 trillion dollars a year. Fruits and vegetables have the highest waste percentages, at over 50% in the US. Also, 20% of meat and dairy, and 35% of fish are wasted. Over one quarter of the world’s agricultural land produces food waste. A tremendous amount of fresh water is wasted, and the carbon footprint of wasted food is huge. Only 3% of food waste gets composted.
This really surprised me: date labels are the most common reason people toss food. These labels are voluntary and meant as an indicator of flavor as much as spoilage. Labels are not standardized, and can be very confusing to consumers. O’Neill stresses that changing date labels would greatly help avoiding food waste.
The plastics industry touts its role in preventing food waste. Yet, much of the most difficult to recycle plastic comes in the form of food packaging, especially soft films and plastic bags.
Plastics have flooded the oceans and worked their way into our bloodstream. Plastic products take anywhere from 5 to 1,000 years to breakdown, and even then, the resulting microplastics basically last forever. In the Pacific Ocean, in an area about twice the size of Texas, lies a pool of at least 79,000 tons of floating plastic.
In 2017 the UN declared plastics in the oceans a planetary crisis. Some actions are being taken, but not nearly enough. O’Neill discusses different solutions, such as worldwide bans and restrictions for single-use plastics, or the quest for alternatives and substitutes. But replacing plastics is going to be extremely hard. Clearly people like to use plastics, and old habits are hard to break. Plus, Big Business produce plastics, including chemical companies, such as Dow and DuPont, and oil companies such as Exxon. These highly-polluting industries have the deep pockets to fight off change that would lower their profits.
Deviously, it was the plastics industry that lobbied hard for the labeling system we see on the bottom of plastics, numbering from 1 to 7. Only those labeled 1 and 2 are easily recycled. The others likely won’t ever get recycled, yet us consumers feel good when we toss them into our recycle bin, not realizing they are effectively contaminating the recycle and heading for a landfill. We love plastics. Over 300 million tons of plastic waste are generated annually.
In 2018, China changed its policy and prohibited imports of plastic waste, siting a new policy of “no more foreign garbage.” This has caused a problem for American recyclers. Currently, in the US, less than 10% of plastic is recycled. About 15% is incinerated, and the remaining 75% goes to landfills. Simply put, recycling of plastics isn’t working. The real solution is developing substitutes and alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastics of all kinds.
O’Neill concludes here book with some optimism, including describing many governance innovations and experiments currently in-work, albeit with only marginal success. As consumers, O’Neill provides us several options. We can modify our consumption habits to reduce waste. We can keep a close eye on what’s happening within our government, and not let Big Business prohibit governmental action to reduce waste and restrict single-use plastics. We can lobby to allow for electronic devices to be repaired. “Zero waste” communities have succeeded in a few places, proving we can do it. But like most everything, changing habits will take time and effort from us all.
Although a bit of an academic read, reading Waste is definitely not a waste of time.
February 9, 2021
This is a plain-looking unassuming little gem that I found by accident on a back shelf of my local library. I really liked the plain, no-nonsense language in which information was presented. Everything was well referenced and there are interesting graphics presenting data as recent as 2018. This is essentially an academic piece of writing that is nevertheless very accessible to anyone who picks it up. I gave 4 stars instead of 5 since the book is actually quite small, allowing for only scratching the surface of the complex topics presented, but whatever is presented is an excellent primer.
The focus of the book is global waste movement. The content does a great job of highlighting how the out-of-sight, out-of-mind culture around waste has lead to a burgeoning network of waste trade and movement around the globe (and not always from the Global North to the Global South, as is also addressed herein), and what the socio-economic and political implications of these are. There are interesting case studies surrounding formal and informal waste- and recycling- worker scenes in certain countries. Of course, there is also some discussion of China's big crackdown on importing foreign waste, the so-called "Operation National Sword" that sent shockwaves through the world's waste management systems.
I will comment on how the massive movement of waste internationally is, in my personal experience at least, an oft-ignored topic. People tend to assume that when their waste gets carted away to the local landfill / recycling facility, that's where it ends and everything's dandy. I remember even attending a debate for a municipal election, and when asked about how much of our raw regional waste gets shipped off to other countries and how this can be addressed, the answer from the candidates of all parties was essentially "umm, what are you talking about". Hopefully more books like this will help raise awareness.
The focus of the book is global waste movement. The content does a great job of highlighting how the out-of-sight, out-of-mind culture around waste has lead to a burgeoning network of waste trade and movement around the globe (and not always from the Global North to the Global South, as is also addressed herein), and what the socio-economic and political implications of these are. There are interesting case studies surrounding formal and informal waste- and recycling- worker scenes in certain countries. Of course, there is also some discussion of China's big crackdown on importing foreign waste, the so-called "Operation National Sword" that sent shockwaves through the world's waste management systems.
I will comment on how the massive movement of waste internationally is, in my personal experience at least, an oft-ignored topic. People tend to assume that when their waste gets carted away to the local landfill / recycling facility, that's where it ends and everything's dandy. I remember even attending a debate for a municipal election, and when asked about how much of our raw regional waste gets shipped off to other countries and how this can be addressed, the answer from the candidates of all parties was essentially "umm, what are you talking about". Hopefully more books like this will help raise awareness.
February 1, 2020
The book is part of a resource series by Polity Books. Despite the no frills appearance on the cover, the contents are filled with information on the resources available in our trash. Fortunately for the reader and the author, she decided to write on the subject after the markets changed. If this had been written even two years sooner, China's National Sword policy would not have been announced and the story would have been how developed countries offload their collected recyclable and shipped them to developing countries "solving" the developed nation's waste problems. Today's world of recycling is in flux and Kate O'Neill does a good job at describing how it is affecting both the industrial north and the cheap-labored south. This book may be dated in 5 years if infrastructure catches up with the change in market realities or this book may be part of the blueprint to maintain the current globalized handling of e-wastes and plastics.
As it says on the back cover, waste can be a risk, a resource, and even a livelihood. Ideally, Zero Waste initiatives will become reality. Until then, the rising levels of landfills show that the management of waste is becoming increasingly important and books like this are a good primer for public policy makers.
As it says on the back cover, waste can be a risk, a resource, and even a livelihood. Ideally, Zero Waste initiatives will become reality. Until then, the rising levels of landfills show that the management of waste is becoming increasingly important and books like this are a good primer for public policy makers.
February 20, 2020
This is an important book and very much worth the time spent reading it. It is not easy reading, you must be aware that this is a research article written into book form. At times I had to set this books aside and read something lighter, but I am glad to have gotten through it. This book has contextualized the relationship between waste, global politics, and climate change for me and has forced me to rethink my daily purchases.
August 26, 2021
4 stars for the theme of the book.
Writing was very repetitive, and sometimes too superficial. Although written by a political scientist it lacked on that front. It was written a few years ago and some (technical) information is not correct (anymore).
Some GG solutions were proposed without much critique (for ex developmental aid) and the parts about trade, WTO lacked reflections about the reality of global ‘free’ trade.
Writing was very repetitive, and sometimes too superficial. Although written by a political scientist it lacked on that front. It was written a few years ago and some (technical) information is not correct (anymore).
Some GG solutions were proposed without much critique (for ex developmental aid) and the parts about trade, WTO lacked reflections about the reality of global ‘free’ trade.
May 13, 2020
Interesting topics but sadly poorly edited. The book has some interesting case examples of waste challenges and dilemmas to share, and yet I found myself distracted by non-sequiturs, paragraphs with topic sentences that didn't relate, overuse of jargon, and overzealous what-I-will-tell-you and what-I-just-told-you writing without enough time spent building clear arguments themselves.
January 12, 2020
A fine primer on global waste streams and political economy, fine line between scrap resource and trash, chasm to circular or zero initiatives. Case studies on e-waste, food waste, and plastics, but dry and high-level.
February 25, 2020
Very thick and full of references. I learned a lot which is why it gets 4 stars. I wouldn’t say this is for the casual reader.
December 1, 2020
This tightly written, technical approach to the topic is a great teaching tool for introducing students to concepts related to waste, disposal, prevention, and reuse.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews