Book: WASTE WARS: DIRTY DEALS, INTERNATIONAL RIVALRIES AND THE SCANDALOUS AFTERLIFE OF RUBBISH
Author: Alexander Clapp
Published by: Hachette
Price: Rs 799
The seemingly innocuous Diet Coke can at McDonald’s, diligently crushed and chucked away with the non-recyclables, has more than half a chance of eventually ending up with biohazard nuclear spillage from a very different part of the world: such is the scale of waste and its subsequent management. In this book, the investigative journalist, Alexander Clapp, offers a compelling exposé of the global waste trade, a murky system that sees rich nations exporting their trash to the developing world in the guise of recycling. Spanning five continents and based on two years of immersive investigative reporting, Clapp’s book sheds light on the hidden lives of discarded goods and the profound social and environmental consequences they leave in their wake. Through vivid on-the-ground reportage, Clapp guides readers from the junkyards of Ghana to the ship-breaking yards of Turkey, to the overwhelmed recycling facilities of Indonesia and beyond. What he uncovers is a deeply troubling system driven by profit, indifference and systemic inequality.
Waste Wars reveals how Western countries dump their waste burdens on poorer nations that often lack the infrastructure to handle the volume and the toxicity of the imported material. In Ghana’s Agbogbloshie, for instance, where millions of tons of electronic waste are processed every year (picture), workers, many of them children, who dismantle electronics by hand, expose themselves to lead, mercury and other dangerous substances. In Turkey, luxury cruise ships are methodically torn apart by poorly-protected labourers. These, Clapp argues, are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a globalised system that shields Western consumers from the costs of their lifestyles.
International laws and institutions that claim to regulate the waste trade are beset with poor enforcement and vague definitions, allowing the trade to flourish uninterrupted. The language of “recycling” can be a smokescreen too; much of what is exported is not reused at all but dumped or burnt, aggravating environmental degradation and public health crises.
Clapps’ observations, made in a tone that strikes a balance between outrage and restraint, invite reflection while avoiding simplistic solutions.