This is a very enlightening but scary, extensively researched book by a Greek journalist. He travels around the world seeking to understand the movement of all kinds of trash from microplastics to monstrous cruise ships that have become outdated.
There seems to be some inconsistency in praising the industry of recycling steel because of its environmental credentials with 1/3 the carbon output of making new steel, while criticizing the huge ship dismantling industry, but the impact of the movement of parts of ships negates most of the benefits.
The hypocrisy of countries banning the importing of trash from rich countries while buying millions of tons of plastics allegedly for recycling is made abundantly clear, while equal hypocrisy is showered on the people by the fossil fuel industry folk always trying to increase sales of plastics.
The dark underworld of the movement of trash, with poor enforcement of laws and almost no inspection of cargo ships for illicit trash is detailed.
I diligently separate my discards into cleaned paper, plastics and metals, and compost, but after reading this gloomy tome I am left to wonder how much that benefits the environment- certainly not as much as the collectors and traders would have me believe. It seems to me that everything is overpackaged in plastic and we should be protesting that. I just ate a cupcake with a silly little gold coloured plastic flower on top of it that may well end up being burned with emission of toxic fumes in a tofu factory in Indonesia.
4.4/5
Thanks, The Economist.
The Passionate Reader 