Business of dirt

The waste management ecosystem is rooted in poverty, politics, colonialism, corporate greed and environmental injustice, with serious consequences to human health

- ROHINI KRISHNAMURTHY

OLIVER FRANKLINWALLIS features editor at British GQ magazine, felt sick walking through a waste dump in Kanpur, a major industrial cluster of leather factories in Uttar Pradesh. The dump was carpeted with leather scraps. Goats and chickens were seen picking through the waste for food. Calling it a desolate site, Franklin-Wallis went on to ask a poignant question: “How little we truly see of the way things are made, and how little we understand of the true cost?” The statement sums up his book Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where it Goes and Why it Matters.

The book is as much about waste as it is about people involved in the dirt business. The whole ecosystem built around waste management is rooted in poverty, politics, colonialism, corporate greed and environmental injustice, which comes with some serious consequences to human health.

The author follows the complex journey of different variety of wastes—solid, industrial, paper, plastic, food, fashion, nuclear and electronic—in the Global North, largely the UK. Barring field visits to India and Ghana, the developing world—which faces a higher burden, given its growing population and poor infrastructure—finds little space in the book. However, issues concerning the Global South are briefly covered at various points in the book.