Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future

Oliver Franklin-Wallis tracks the global movement of discarded objects, from Ghana’s mountains of second-hand textiles to New Delhi’s sprawling official and unofficial landfills. He documents the technical realities of industrial recycling, the chemical complexities of plastic management, and the massive scale of human sewage processing. The narrative identifies the specific infrastructures that hide waste from public view and localizes the environmental costs of consumerism. By interviewing landfill workers, waste pickers, and corporate executives, the book details how the modern economy relies on shifting toxins and trash to marginalized communities and developing nations.

This book is intended for readers interested in logistics, environmental science, and the hidden mechanics of global trade. Those who study sustainability or supply chains will find data on why circular economy initiatives often fail in practice. Readers gain a practical understanding of how specific materials decompose or persist in the environment. The text provides a sobering look at the physical consequences of disposal habits, leaving the reader with a clear view of the structural changes necessary to manage the world’s growing volume of refuse.