Elizabeth Royte

Most of us no longer believe in the tooth fairy but we do believe every week or so the garbage fairy visits us to make our garbage disappear and the toilet fairy magically eliminates our eliminations with one flush.

Elizabeth got the idea to investigate the fairies. The book opens with Elizabeth weighing the garbage against the average American’s garbage output of 4.3 pounds per day. Her daily weightings gave me a feeling of gross out and laughter.

This is the theme of most of the book. In her tours of landfills, treatment plants, recycling centers, and the sewer systems she met hostility, regulations, and confronting the enormity of the situation.

Elizabeth faces a difficult situation of describing some of the buildings, machinery, and systems of our trash. How can one describe tons of trash? And perhaps the most difficult of all … how can she describe the smells?

Thankfully, Elizabeth has done that for us and open up a few eyes that there are no garbage or toilet fairies.… (más)

Adult nonfiction. Royte explores the various aspects of garbage--landfills, recycling (paper, metal, e-waste, plastics), composting, and sewage treatment--spilling out all the details of what it contains, where it ends up, and how it gets there. She gives you more reasons to hate plastic (which turns out to be not really that recyclable at all, despite manufacturers' claims otherwise) and one more reason to consider organic produce (farmers aren't allowed to use sewage-turned fertilizer on it). A recommended read for anyone that is trying to be greener.… (más)

This book provides an interesting and very detailed look at the bottled water business. It looks at how the business went from a small niche to a big market. It may either make you go buy more bottled water, or really make you stick with the tap water. Because the truth is not as simple as it is usually presented. Tap water is not as bad as people make it sound. . .for the most part. But bottled water is not much better, and at times, is slightly worse, not to mention its environmental impact. This book does try to look at both sides of the issue in a balanced way as the author travels and speaks to many experts from water utility managers to a bottled water snob to corporate representatives of bottled water. If you have no idea where your drinking water comes from, you have to read this book. Me? I am sticking with my tap water and refilling my bottle. By the way, the history is very interesting as well; the book looks at how springs were seen as medicinal and the early bottling businesses. This is one I recommend. I understand this author has other books, so I will likely look for them as well.… (más)