The MacArthur grant–winning environmental justice activist’s riveting memoir of a life fighting for a cleaner future for America’s most vulnerable A Smithsonian Magazine Top Ten Best Science Book of 2020 Catherine Coleman Flowers, a 2020 MacArthur “genius,” grew up in Lowndes County, Alabama, a place that’s been called “Bloody Lowndes” because of its violent, racist history. Once the epicenter of the voting rights struggle, today it’s Ground Zero for a new movement that is also Flowers’s life’s work—a fight to ensure human dignity through a right most Americans take for granted: basic sanitation. Too many people, especially the rural poor, lack an affordable means of disposing cleanly of the waste from their toilets and, as a consequence, live amid filth. Flowers calls this America’s dirty secret. In this “powerful and moving book” (Booklist), she tells the story of systemic class, racial, and geographic prejudice that foster Third World conditions not just in Alabama, but across America, in Appalachia, Central California, coastal Florida, Alaska, the urban Midwest, and on Native American reservations in the West. In this inspiring story of the evolution of an activist, from country girl to student civil rights organizer to environmental justice champion at Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative, Flowers shows how sanitation is becoming too big a problem to ignore as climate change brings sewage to more backyards—not only those of poor minorities.
Solid waste management issues are a highly emotive topic. Disposal costs need to be balanced against environmental impact, which often results in heated public debate. Disposal options such as incineration and landfill, whilst unpopular with both the public and environmental pressure groups, do not pose the same environmental and health risks as, for example, recycling plants. This book, written by international experts, discusses the various waste disposal options that are available (landfill, incineration, composting, recycling) and then reviews their impact on the environment, and particularly on human health. Comprehensive and highly topical, Environmental and Health Impact of Solid Waste Management Activities will make a strong contribution to scientific knowledge in the area, and will be of value to scientists and policy-makers in particular.
PRAISE FOR WASTED ‘This book enhances our understanding of the historical issues that have plagued India’s sanitation challenge. A must read for those who are interested in the important agenda of a clean environment for all’ NAINA LAL KIDWAI, Chair, India-Sanitation Coalition ‘Despite the clarion call by our Prime Minister, Indian society still lacks clarity on the nature of the desirable solution for sanitation. Wasted is a serious attempt at pointing out possibilities and solutions. Written lucidly and in a narrative style; it provides an inspiring peek of a clean future. A much-needed book for our times’ DR RAJIV KUMAR, Vice Chairman, Niti Aayog ‘Wasted advocates that the handling of waste in India requires the finest management and developmental architecture. The book remarkably delves into the depth and breadth of the problem of yesterday and today and presents it as a free-flowing storytelling’ MARTIN MACWAN, Dalit human rights activist ‘Wasted locates India’s missed opportunities in sanitation in its complex civilizational legacy; its comfort with caste, informality and child labour; and in its appalling local governance systems. Necessary reading for every policy maker, town planner and engaged urban citizen.’ HARSH MANDER, author and activist ‘Wasted addresses India’s complex caste-driven perception of waste. It traces the illogic of our constant discontent with modes of disposal, while being deliberately blind to socio-political processes behind its creation. This book must be read by all concerned Indians’ ARUNA ROY, socio-political activist and Magsaysay Award winner (2000) ‘India is not working on the science needed towards the management of pollution that it emits in the name of development. Therefore, even well-intentioned projects do not yield results. This book can be an entry point to understanding the process to reduce use of nature and to rejuvenate nature for our sustainable future’ DR RAJENDRA SINGH, environmentalist and Magsaysay Award winner (2001) ABOUT THE BOOK Urban India generates close to 3 million trucks of untreated garbage every day. If these were laid end-to-end, one could reach half way to the moon. The need for attention to sanitation and cleanliness is both urgent and long-term. This book takes an honest look into India’s perpetual struggle with these issues and suggests measures to overcome them. Historically, we have developed into a society with a skewed mindset towards sanitation with our caste system and non-accountability towards sanitation. Through stories, anecdotes and analysis of events, this book seeks solutions to the current entangled problems of urban planning, governance and legislation, and institutional and human capacity building. Wasted traces interesting relationships between urban planning and dirty cities in India; legislative and governance lacunae and the rising height of open landfills; the informality of waste management methods, and the degrading health of Indian rivers, soil and air. Arguing that all current solutions of India are extrapolated from these flawed beliefs and structures and are therefore woefully inadequate, Bisen draws a benchmark from clean countries of today. Underlining the need for inclusive human clusters, specificity in legislation, correction of existing social contracts and governance frameworks, creating a formal resource recovery industry in India, and the pursuit of diplomacy around this industry, this book shows how these solutions could lead us towards a brighter future and better social development.
