Rubbish!

All the reading I was doing about rats last month got me thinking about garbage. If garbage attracts rats, and rats are a problem, how big of a problem is garbage? I've never thought about it before. The garbage truck comes to my house every week and picks up my trash. I have no idea where it goes, and frankly, I never gave it much thought. So I thought it might be interesting to find out how much trash we produce and what exactly happens to it. It turns out that there are quite a few books on garbage. Elizabeth Royte's Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash and Heather Rogers's Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage provide a fascinating, yet scary, account of the history of garbage, the paths our garbage takes, and the issues we face today. These books are chock full of "did-you-knows" that you can use at parties. For example, did you know:

• The average American throws away 4.5 pounds of garbage per person, per day.


• 88% of U.S. products are used once and thrown out.


• 67% of America's household waste stream could be composted.


• The liners that are required for new landfills are only good for about fifty years. And the EPA requires landfill owners to monitor a landfill for only 30 years after its closure.


• Dumps from the Roman Empire are still leaching today.


• The garbage industry in New York was controlled by the Mafia for many years.
  

While both books share much of the same information, Royte's book is a more personal look at garbage. She spends the year analyzing her own trash, following garbage men (and women), and visiting landfills and recycling centers and she infuses much of the book with personal antidotes. Rogers's book sticks to the facts and does a better job of clearly detailing the history of trash and the current issues. Although both books provide more information than most people will ever want to know about garbage, they are interesting and eye-opening. I can't wait to get started composting.