Description

'Waste is a serious problem and also a curiously fascinating one. In this brilliant book, Franklin-Wallis goes into it up to his neck – so we don’t have to! The result is a gripping read that will anger as much as it fascinates. There’s lots we can all do to help, but he’s right to conclude that it’s government and business who really have to step up, and clean up.' Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

'This is an incredible journey into the world of rubbish, full of fascinating characters and mind-bending facts. My relationship with garbage is never going to be the same.'​ Oliver Bullough, bestselling author of Butler to the World

'A fascinating, deeply researched and hugely important exposé of what happens to the stuff we no longer want, and the social and environmental cost of dealing with it' Gaia Vince 

'There are stories in all our discarded things: who made them, what they meant to a person before they were thrown away. In the end, it all ends up in the same place – the endless ingenuity of humanity in one filthy, fascinating mass.'
 
When we throw things ‘away’, what does that actually mean? Where does it go, and who deals with it when it gets there? In Wasteland, award-winning journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis takes us on an eye-opening journey through the global waste industry. From the mountainous landfills of New Delhi to Britain’s overflowing sewers, from hollowed-out mining towns in the USA to Ghana’s flooded second-hand markets, we meet the people on the frontline of our waste crisis – both those being exploited, and those determined to make a difference. On the way, we discover the corporate greenwashing that started the recycling movement; the dark truth behind our second-hand donations; and come face to face with the 10,000-year legacy of our nuclear waste.
 
Both shocking and hopeful, Wasteland is the timely and ultimately human story at the heart of an urgent global issue.