Is it possible for individuals to tackle waste by recycling, reusing and
reducing alone? This provocative book critically analyses the widespread
assumption that individuals and households have created our global waste
crisis. Sociologist and waste expert Myra J. Hird reveals neoliberal
capitalism's fallacy of infinite growth as the real culprit, and
demonstrates how industry and local governments work in tandem to
deflect our attention away from the real causes of our global waste
problem. Hird offers crucial insights into the relations between waste
and wider societal issues including ongoing (settler) colonialism,
poverty, racism and sexism, and showcases how sociology may provide
solutions through a 'pubic imagination' of waste.