garbage…Trashy reading, that is! (For once, I’m not editorializing: I mean books about landfills, recycling, and garbage.)

“You only like to read about bummers,” says my boyfriend disapprovingly. He’s not wrong — last year’s hoarding obsession seems to have evolved into my current fixation with garbage and waste. (I even bought myself some garbage socks.) But it’s so interesting! Our modern, convenience-heavy lives create so much waste (plastic packaging, spoiled or uneaten food, cheap fashion from discount chains, and don’t get me started on e-waste), and as far as most of us are concerned, we dump it in the trash or recycling and… it disappears.

Of course, it doesn’t really go away, and where to put all that crap is becoming a huge problem. The way we’re doing it now won’t last: landfills are finite, incineration is smelly and toxic, and recycling simply isn’t efficient enough. But it’s not all depressing: there are also books about technological innovations and inspiring scientists and thinkers who are creating a new paradigm for thinking about the goods we consume, and the waste we don’t.

Take a look at my garbage reading list, and if you have a favorite that’s not on here, suggest it in the comments!

Stephanie Perry
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