Book Review: Total Garbage

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Humes begins with what can only be described as a shock-and-awe sentence in his latest book, called “Total Garbage.” Just chew on this for a moment: “You swallowed,” Humes writes, “285 pieces of plastic today.”

While plastic was invented only a little over a century ago, now there is no escaping it. Record amounts of plastic waste are trashing not only our roadsides and coasts. Research across the globe indicates that degraded plastic micro-particulates now commonly appear in our food and drink and, once ingested or imbibed, they’re small enough to enter our bloodstream and accumulate in our heart, our lungs, and our brain.

It’s not inconceivable, Humes warns us, that some Americans may be consuming as much as five grams of plastic a week, bit by tiny bit. (And if you’re like most Americans and can’t really conceive of what that metric figure means, the author offers a disconcerting image: “Think of it as pulling a credit card out of your wallet, chewing it, and swallowing it. All of it. Up to once a week, every week. Forever.”) 

In “Total Garbage,” Humes indicts society for embracing unsustainable practices that have led not only to commonly accepted fallacy of “disposable” plastics, but to some of the other massive global crises we’ve had to face in the 20th and 21st centuries. He points to our continuing reliance on fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers, meat-centered diets, fast fashion – and what that has meant for global warming, soil and water quality, or solid waste. Time and again, capitalists, manufacturers and marketers have shied away from doing the right thing. Consumers – and voters – have been fickle. Government policies have been hit or miss.

This book came out last year, and Humes mentions Biden administration incentives to promote transitions to cleaner energy and transportation infrastructure that, with the recent swipe of a Trump Sharpie, are now things of the past. Environmentally inclined readers will surely feel a pang for the missed opportunities.

But if we can’t count on our institutions, Humes suggests maybe we can rely on one another – as neighbors. also delivers a mix of hopeful solutions. He introduces readers to the pragmatically-driven efforts of volunteers, entrepreneurs, and college campuses to bring about positive change – at least on local or even state levels. He gives examples of anti-trash advocates who are disrupting ineffective old garbage disposal methods with better models for repurposing, better incentives for recycling, and better laws for sustainability. He introduces readers to homeowners who are replacing their water-guzzling lawns with better-adapted native plants and front-yard farms. He talks about a community in Georgia that has adapted its roadways so that now golf carts (NEVs – neighborhood electric vehicles) are the preferred runabout car for errands.  

Reducing waste is less of a chore if you know you’re saving money, and Humes points to this time and again with examples of the cost-saving benefits of vegan diets, thrifting for clothes, unplugging vampire electronics, using countertop induction burners and other electric appliances over gas options, or switching to LED light bulbs.

“We can do this,” he tells his readers. “We can fix the waste driving all these crises.” 

He has seen chefs, mayors, farmers, tinkerers, students, engineers and civic organizations all figure out ways to “un-waste ourselves to a brighter future.”

In “Total Garbage,” Humes wants readers to see that waste doesn’t need to be the pervasive presence it has become in our society. Individuals and communities are pursuing solutions right now that debunk the idea that waste is inevitable. The author provides abundant examples to show that, when looking through the lens of waste reduction, people in red and blue states alike can find common cause in opening several different pathways to healthier living. 

Total Garbage
How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal Our World
by Edward Humes
Avery Books (2024)
pp 288