On The Secret Trail Of Trash

With proper treatment, even the story of garbage can sparkle.

1 minute read

July 20, 2005, 7:00 AM PDT

Accomplished freelance writer Elizabeth Royte brings "participatory zeal to a local story of global importance. A kayak trip near her Brooklyn home sets Royte to wondering about the final resting place of the estimated 1.3 tons of refuse she - like every American -- generates each year.

That wondering draws her deep into the world of the sanitation worker, whose work is statistically more dangerous than police work or firefighting. And it takes her far from the sack-strewn alleys, into the "sordid afterlife of garbage" in the byzantine universe of transfer stations, "scum concentrators," landfills, and incinerators - places with their own lexicons, class topography, pathogens, episodes of secrecy and corruption."

Thanks to Chris Steins

FULL STORY: A trashy tale well told

Wednesday, July 20, 2005 in The Christian Science Monitor

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