G. Venkatesh

Shocking, essential, gripping, fascinating, enraging, engaging, interesting, urgent, probing, compelling, smart, fair, funny, very important….these are few of the adjectives used to describe Oliver Franklin-Wallis’ Wasteland — a 390-page eye-opener of a book published by Simon and Schuster (UK) in 2023. I would add ‘timely’ to the mix, and replace the ‘but’ in the ‘Shocking but compelling reading’ (Tim Spector on the cover), with ‘and therefore’.

The ‘What’, ‘Where’ and the ‘Why’ of waste generation and handling (or mishandling, rather) have been explained by the author with the skill of a raconteur, with the aid of the ‘Who’, ‘When’, and ‘How’ in this comprehensive account which is sure to interest professionals, decision-makers in government and industry, and most of all, students in universities around the world. It is this last-named group of potential readers to whom I would like to strongly recommend this book.

Oliver takes readers on a roller-coaster ride through Dirtiness (Part I), Foulness (Part II), and Toxicity (Part III), encompassing the multiple R’s of a circular economy in the process, before finally leaving behind some good advice and hope for the future…read more on NOPR