This
book starts with the premise that waste is inevitable in human society.
The Idea of Waste explores how we have grappled with both
the material reality and the spectre of this shape-shifting phenomenon
throughout history – utilizing it, dreaming of overcoming it, yet never
escaping it. John Scanlan explores what waste is and why it seems to be
intrinsic to human life, at every turn, in every age and epoch. Finally, he
demonstrates how waste never disappears, but rather only proliferates anew.
The compelling narrative shows waste to be both an enduring material
consequence of human activity and an idea or state of being.