Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Garbology, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Hidden Costs of Waste
Consumerism vs. Conservation
The Power of Individuals
Money and Politics
Summary
Analysis
On May 24, 2010, in a ruined home on the South Side of Chicago, rescue workers in hazmat suits searched for an elderly couple, the Gastons. The Gastons were hoarders and compulsively collected trash, filling their homes with it. Though the Gastons were an extreme example, somewhere between 3 and 6 million Americans at the time were estimated to be compulsive junk hoarders.
Edward Humes begins Garbology with a shocking image that helps emphasize what the garbage crisis looked like in the U.S. in 2010 (a couple years before the book’s 2012 publication). The Gastons represent an extreme example of modern wastefulness, but Humes argues that, in fact, their wastefulness is just more obvious than most people’s. This forces people reading the book to consider ways in which their own trash habits might resemble a seemingly extreme example like the Gastons.
Themes
Though hoarders are unusual, the amount of trash they generate isn’t unusual. In 2011, Americans made more trash than any other group on the planet, throwing out an average of 7 pounds per person per day, every day of the year. In a lifetime, that added up to 102 tons of trash.
The most important statistic in the entire book is the 102 tons of trash that every American generates in a lifetime. Though the figure is an estimate (and likely one that would have changed since the book’s original 2012 publication), Humes uses a specific number in order to emphasize the concrete nature of all the trash Americans produce. The emphasis on concreteness reminds readers that garbage is a physical object that takes up space, and something needs to be done with it.
Themes
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that between 1980 and 2000, the average American started throwing out about one-third more trash every day. This was far above predictions that people made in the earlier part of the 20th century. Some American politicians see trash as a positive sign—though it causes environmental and economic problems, it is ultimately a signal that people are buying goods and that the economy is prospering. By contrast, during the Great Recession in 2008, landfill growth slowed considerably.
Edward Humes expands on the issue of garbage, showing that it doesn’t exist in a vacuum but is in fact deeply connected to other parts of American culture, particularly politics and the economy. The fact that some politicians see trash as a positive sign is an early indication of the role politics will play in the book. Many of the best potential solutions for solving the garbage crisis never get a fair chance because they face political opposition, often from corporations with significant lobbying power.
Themes
The only difference between hoarders and average Americans is that the waste of hoarders is visible, while most Americans’ trash is invisible, hidden away at landfills. In the early 21st century, the annual trash load of the U.S. was equivalent to the combined weight of every U.S. adult, multiplied by 18. While EPA reports were considered the most accurate records of American trash output, more recent independent surveys have shown that historically, the EPA has underestimated the amount of garbage produced and overestimated the percentage of trash that gets recycled.
After introducing the issue of hoarders with the Gastons, Humes expands upon the issue to provide a fuller picture of what trash production looks like for an average American. While the statistics here are important, the real takeaway is less about specific numbers and more about how these statistics provide evidence of a large-scale crisis. Also significant is how new evidence suggests that previous reports were underestimates—it suggests that the garbage crisis is a larger and more urgent problem than most people recognize.
Themes
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The lifetime 102 tons of garbage only accounts for trash that Americans throw away in cans by the curb. A more comprehensive figure that includes transportation, energy use, and sewage would raise the lifetime average to 2,700 tons of trash. The numbers are so high and yet so little-known that it’s as if trash is an addiction in the U.S.
Humes shows the scale of the garbage crisis by slowly building up to its full scope. The image of the Gastons was already shocking, but Humes builds on this image to show that in fact, the real scope of wastefulness in the U.S. is even bigger than that.
Themes
In 2006, Zhang Yin became China’s first female billionaire by finding a way to export America’s garbage to China. China desperately needed scrap paper to recycle (since it had deforested large parts of the country during the Great Leap Forward). Zhang found a way to amass large amounts of scrap paper from American cities, then sell it to China. Trash has become the U.S.’s biggest legacy: the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island is one of the few man-made objects visible from space.
The Great Leap Forward was an attempt in the mid-20th century by China’s leader, Mao Zedong, to modernize the country by moving it away from its agrarian economy. It remains controversial and caused tens of millions of deaths through famine. Though Garbology focuses on the U.S.’s trash problem in particular, this section reminds readers that trash is always a global issue.
Themes
What does it mean that every American generates a lifetime of 102 tons of trash, and what can be done about it? Garbology uses a three-part structure to approach the issue in three different ways: problem, investigation, and solution.
Humes sets out a blueprint for the rest of the book. After introducing the huge, global scale of the garbage crisis, he pivots back in the other direction to show how this massive problem might actually be manageable.
Themes
Though hoarders may seem like part of the waste problem, they also help point to a solution by showing that trash does have value in a strange way: as a physical sign of wastefulness. But while hoarding is more honest than hidden consumption, even better than both would be to find a way to avoid accumulating so much trash in the first place. A table at the end of the introduction lists shocking statistics about American annual waste, including over 28 billion pounds of food thrown away.
Humes ends the introduction by bringing up an idea that he will return to throughout the book: that it’s better to be informed about a crisis than to live in blissful ignorance. Though the shocking statistics may alarm readers, ultimately Humes wants to provide hope that knowledge can lead the way to finding a solution for the garbage crisis.
Themes
