Gone Tomorrow - The Hidden Life of Garbage
Heather Rogers

Garbage seems to experience a pretty dull and predictable life cycle.  We might discard a fast food wrapper in our garbage can thinking nothing of its short trip to the local land fill, but the life of trash is writhe with complexities.  As author Heather Rogers shows in Gone Tomorrow:  The Hidden Life of Garbage trash has historically been a focal point of social struggles and environmental disasters.  Gone Tomorrow explains the origins of our current perceptions of garbage as well as the tumultuous series of events that formed our current attitudes. (Read more...)

Exposing the powerful social undercurrents that have historically been tied to how society disposes of its wastes, Rogers moves through various eras in the United  States showing the progression (or lack their of) of garbage disposal.  Gone Tommorow’s detailed history of rejectamenta provides a vivid explanation as to how deeply connected our lives are to our refuse.  While we typically think of garbage as something we can simply dispose of and forget, Rogers shows that the lengthy tenure of our rejected goods proves otherwise.

Gone Tomorrow transitions smoothly from an explanation of our garbage past and sets the stage for discussion of our future.  Rogers takes a critical look at previous efforts to curb waste and blocked attempts at source reduction.  Gone Tomorrow avoids coming off as overly preachy and instead examines methods that have been used to successfully to manage wastes.   Overall Gone Tomorrow sets the stage for more candid discussion of waste management and provides the reader with a quick primer on how garbage is handled in the United States.