Garbage Land On the Secret Trail of Trash

Question: Describe about the Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash. Answer: The book Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash (Royte, 2005) is quite an interesting story, though slightly gross, of all the things that are thrown away by us. It is very colourful as well as witty the only issue being that it can at times be bewildering due to the facts which are too many and interpretations of these which are too few. The question that Elizabeth Royte seeks to answer is where does the trash we throw, end up and do the things that we throw into the recycle bin actually ever recycled. This book is not only for the environmentalist but also for all those people who throw away things in the trash. This is the very enlightening book on that aspect of our everyday life over which not a lot of people put in much thought or want to think about in great detail, but the manner in which Royte handles this matter of subject is very amusing, and this book is quite a quick read according to me. The information is presented by her in a manner which is non-judgmental and straightforward, and the handling of the subject matter of the book is in a manner which is most amusing. The way in which she honestly assesses her own habits which are trashy and her humour which is self-deprecating in nature makes it's simpler for everybody to take a look at things which they themselves keep trashing every day. There are two narratives which have been braided together in this book. The first narrative comprises of the experiences of Royte herself, there are portraits of engineers, workers in sanitation and environmentalists with who she converses with; she also describes the recycling plants and landfills that she visits; the quest which has been taken by specially to as much as possible recycle; and the observations over all this that she slyly has. The scientific part of the book the second part of the narrative, it is regarding to what is happening to the trash in America at a level which is statistical in nature. Royte in this books gives the reader a lot of what before coming actually to the point of what is next. It is only towards the book's end where there is a section which has wittily called as Piling On' does she make a request for becoming more conscious about the trash that we discard. She in this book points out that an American averagely every day throws out the garbage of 4.3 pounds which is around 1.6 pounds greater than what was being thrown out about thirty years ago. In the book, Royte states that there is no need that is there of a better way of getting rid of the trash. What is necessary is to get rid of the thing completely either by ensuring that it stays in the system by way of continuous cycling or by ensuring that it is not designed only. To begin with the book, the preface is itself worth a read. Here she divulges the fact as to how her thinking began with respect to where the trash is going; it was on a canoe trip during Earth Day in New York City when she had gone with some of her friends who are involved with the Club Sierra. Thinking that the exercise would be good for rowing about and picking up the garbage that was there in Gowanus Canals which is in a neighbourhood in Brooklyn, she was taken aback by the amount of raw sewage and trash that she saw there. It was at that moment only when she realised that she too was responsible partially for this because the crud's effluent from her Park Slope in the Brooklyn neighbourhood also flows into the Gowanus Canals downhill. The trail of Royte's own garbage is followed by her in the book, and she starts this with questioning the garbage collectors in her neighbourhood. She then visits the transfer stations which are always located in the neighbourhoods of the city which are poor. The journey continues in this book where she lets us follow the garbage to the rural towns which are stricken with poverty which allow the garbage of other people into their town for generating income. There are various environmental issues that are related with garbage. However, Royte focuses on the issues relating to environmental justice issues as well. Most of the trash she explains ends up in the town of Pennsylvania which is where the journey leads to. She further explains that every year there is about ten million tonne of waste which is imported from the states that are neighbouring, which is much more than that which is imported from any other state in the US. Though there is income which is generated by this but there is the cost which is paid by the people especially those who are living in the towns that are neighbouring due to all the traffic of the trucks, property values that are degraded, the stench and the downstream flow of the run-off. The book teaches about a subject which is already known to me. I was most certainly quite aware of the leaks in landfills, but I learnt in this book that the environmental impact that this has is much greater due to the inadequacy of technology to be able to protect the groundwater and stream pollution. It has been written by Royte in this book that there is a wide acknowledgement of the fact, even by the EPA, which the best type of landfill liner will also leak ultimately, and this leak will be well before the threat the waste it contains of degrading the environment ceases. I knew of the fact that methane has on the climate a huge impact. But I was unaware of the fact that methane is what is smelt by us when we drive across any landfill area. I also had never thought the impact that the traffic from the trucks has and that they are releasing carbon dioxide into the environment. The collection of electronic and materials which are hazardous are also investigated by Royte. The new as expected is not a very good one that she shares and neither is her conclusion that we might feel that a lot of things are there which we are recycling but we are not actually recycling them. The title chapter which is the best in this book is "Satan's Resin" where she talks about plastic. It might already be known by almost everyone that there is no way in which plastic can be recycled. There are higher changes of it getting being formed into goods of plastic which are of lesser quality but is only delaying the inevitable process of it being dumped into the ocean or landfills. Though it has been seven years since this book was published seven years ago making the statistics in the book a little redundant and there might have been changes in various municipalities in the manner in which they dispose and collect trash, this book however remains a very good read. Royte's book from the start to end has been an excellent read; it will be easier to understand the concept of garbage and garbage disposal and the various effects that it has on the environment and all this despite the book being too dragged out or being an uninteresting read. Royte makes her point while keeping the reader bound to the book. References Royte, E. (2005).Garbage land. New York: Little, Brown.