Description

“Everything looked perfect. Sand – unique Baltic sand, the best in the world – and the calm sea. But wait. Something was amiss. Something was wrong”

It starts with a day at the beach. A single white sock that somehow spoils everything. It’s enough to send writer and ornithologist Stanislaw Lubienski on a quest to understand what we throw away, where it goes and whether it will be our legacy.

By analysing items he unearths on his trips into nature – a plastic bottle, a tube of Russian penis-enlargement cream, a cigarette butt, an empty aerosol can – tracing their origins and explaining the harm they can do, he shows how consumer society has developed out of control, to the point of environmental catastrophe.

He also looks with a birdwatcher’s eye at how various animals have come to adapt to and even rely on our rubbish, and interrogates the cultural significance of waste and the origins of our throw-away lifestyles. Finally, he adds a personal touch by examining his own “environmental neurosis” and by going out with refuse crews to watch them work.

While Lubienski never hectors his readers, nor shames them, his clear-eyed, persuasive and humble polemic reminds us what we, as individuals, can and cannot do to address an apocalyptic issue while there’s still something worth saving.

Translated from the Polish by Zosia Krasodomska-Jones

Publisher Review

Beautifully written and impeccably researched, this profoundly significant book digs deep into the world of waste and is a stark reminder of human impact on our planet. Fascinating, eye-opening and deeply thought-provoking - a hugely important and utterly compelling work -- TRACEY WILLIAMS * author of Adrift: The Curious Tale of a Lego Lost at Sea * This is only outwardly a book about trash. In fact, it is a sad and bitter report on the current state of the world * Gazeta Wyborcza * There's no hiding the fact that for most of us reading this book will be a lesson in preparing for the apocalypse, and a brutal stripping away of our illusions . . . But if we then sink into 'ecological neurosis', it's a sign that we're on the right path to liberating the Earth from the tyranny of trash * Polityka * Although the picture Lubienski paints is alarming, his engaging style and avoidance of histrionics make this a surprisingly enjoyable read * Literary Review * Compelling and hard-hitting, a bold dive into the rubbish heap piling up around us. Lubienski forces us to ask ourselves, how can we live better -- LEE SCHOFIELD, author of Wild Fell