The least rubbish book about rubbish you will ever read! Seriously, it will change your view of the world. Maybe if enough people read it, something positive will happen. The author does acknowledge the guilt we feel as individuals trying to do our best with reducing, reusing and recycling when there need to be massive changes at industry level. There are some pockets of hope amidst the incredibly depressing statistics, however.

There are chapters devoted to most kinds of waste you can think of – food, clothing, cardboard, plastics, sewage, mining, nuclear – with different locations and facilities explored. I think perhaps medical waste should have been featured. I liked the author’s enthusiasm for the subject and that he travelled to places such as India, Ghana and the US, as well as within his home country, the UK. He adds a bit of warmth to the book with some humour and meeting a variety of interesting characters. The book ends with his thoughts on ‘greenwashing’, ‘zero waste’ trends and how the most important thing is to reduce our consumption. The book was published in 2023 so is fairly up to date, although ‘the pandemic’ is mentioned more than necessary.

Published by Simon & Schuster.