Book Log 2006 # 29: Garbage Land by Elizabeth Royte

If you've ever wondered where your garbage goes once you set it out on the curb, this book will give you the answers. Royte spends her time tracking down where her waste goes, from riding with her local "san men" (workers from the NYC Department of Sanitation) to checking out landfills, recycling facilities, incinerators, compost sites, and even sewage treatment plants (for that waste that goes under the curb).

It's a pretty interesting trip, though it's pretty clear that most waste management execs would rather not talk to her (or any writer). It's pretty fun to see Royte's reaction to her own waste, from the ritual weighing of garbage to her increasingly futile attempts to recycle and compost.

At the end, the book somewhat negates itself by noting that, for all the work and concern that goes into addressing residential waste streams, the vast majority of waste (upwards of 98 percent) is commercial, which gets less public notice. So I was wondering a bit why Royte spent so much time following her pelletized poop when she could have been meeting with manufacturers who over-package products, but it didn't take too much away from the actual work.

I was also amused at times by Royte's reaction to the people she met - she seemed surprised at the coarseness of the san men, and seemed a bit too confused by why execs wouldn't want to talk to her.

Anyway, it's not a bad read.