What if our worst environmental calamities, from plastic pollution to climate change, are all symptoms of just one disease, and it’s something we actually can fix?
As I write in the L.A. Times this week, in many ways the planet is fighting a single arch villain: waste.
That’s also the subject of my new book, Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our How Waste and Heal Our World, which is out April 2 in time for Earth Day.
It’s the story of game changers and ordinary people who are tackling waste and the environmental catastrophes it drives—and more often than not, they’re saving and even making money by doing it.
Waste is so deeply embedded in our economy, products and daily lives that it’s hard to see clearly, or to see at all. But the folks who are seeing it have found that rethinking waste as our arch villain isn’t just a word game. It’s the secret sauce that turns anxiety and inertia into hope and action, because waste is the one big problem anyone can do something about.
Please join me for in-person and virtual conversations across the country this spring. Some of the extraordinary men and women featured in Total Garbage also will be joining me. When people like Seattle entrepreneur Ryan Metzger, CEO of the social-impact powerhouse Ridwell, show us how to solve a problem, it’s not about giving up stuff we love. It’s about upgrading to things we’ll love more.
April 2: The Total Garbage book tour kicks off with a streaming conversation hosted by New York’s 92nd Street Y and former New York Times journalist Andy Revkin. 7 pm ET. Register.
April 4: Diesel Books in Brentwood. I’ll be in conversation with Rosanna Xia, author of the award-winning California Against the Sea. 6:30 pm PT. Sign up.
April 9: “Sustain What," a streaming show and podcast hosted by climate journalist Andy Revkin. Total Garbage game changer Sarah Nichols, architect of Maine’s “polluters pay” recycling and reuse law, also joins the discussion. 1 pm ET/10 am PT. View live or later at the Sustain What page, Facebook, X/Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.
April 18: Northwest Passages Community Book Club in Spokane, Washington. I’ll be in conversation with Spokesman-Review Editor Rob Curley at Gonzaga University. 7pm PT. Get tickets.
April 20: Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, USC Campus. Times climate columnist Sammy Roth moderates the “Climate Change Isn’t Fiction” discussion with authors Jeff Goodell, Dan Egan, Rosanna Xia and me. The conversation is sponsored by the Getty’s PST Art: "Art & Science Collide" initiative and hosted by Getty Foundation Director Joan Weinstein. 3:30 PM PT. Get tickets.
April 21: Peninsula Center Library, Earth Day weekend event hosted by Palos Verdes Democrats. 2:30 pm PT. Details.
April 22: Earth Day at Elliott Bay Books, Seattle. Earth I’ll be in conversation with Ryan Metzger, CEO of Ridwell, a subscriber service that recycles and up-cycles normally unrecyclable waste. 7 PM PT.
April 29: GoGo Refill in Portland, Maine. I’ll be joining zero-waste entrepreneur Laura Marston to sign discuss strategies for fixing our waste. 2 PM. Details will be posted soon at the GoGo Facebook page and my events page.
April 30: Keynote Address at the Maine Resource Recovery Association in Rockport, Maine. Details.
June 29: Chautauqua Women’s Club, Upstate New York. I’ll be talking Total Garbage to kick off the summer season at this 135-year-old center for literature, the arts, cultural enrichment, and the exchange of new ideas. Details.
These are just some of the Total Garbage events in the works. For the latest , please visit my events page.
Helpful Links
For teachers and students check out the Total Garbage Classroom Discussion Guide.
For book clubs, here’s the Total Garbage Readers Discussion Guide.
For interviews and events, please contact Lillian Ball at Avery Books, a Penguin Random House imprint.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about the book and how you are tackling waste in your own home or community. And please join the conversation at my Garbology Facebook Page. That’s where we talk trash in a good way!
Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash, was my previous investigation into what we throw away, and has been adopted as a campus and community read at universities and cities across the nation. Now Total Garbage takes the story beyond the trash can to explore waste in all its many forms — and how we fix it.
Last Word....
From Jamiah Hargins, whose nonprofit CropSwapLA builds front yard, zero-waste urban microfarms that turn 1,000-square feet of grass into enough veggies and fruit for 25 to 40 families a week:
“Why mow your yard when you can eat your yard?”
Thanks for taking the time to read my newsletter. I look forward to seeing old and new friends this spring.
Warmest wishes,
Edward Humes