Trash Talk

February 15, 2015
To dumpster dive, to glean, perchance to dream of a zero-waste world.Mulder tells the garbage story in clean and engrossing prose, complemented by stock artwork and photographs. Humans have always made trash-eat that wooly mammoth leg, and you are left with a wooly mammoth bone-though trash production took off exponentially with the establishment of settled communities. What is trash, asks Mulder? Trash is something that no longer is useful. But use is in the eye of the beholder. An empty yogurt container could be chucked out the car window, or it could serve as a pencil holder. Old jeans can be used for housing insulation, as can tires or books or, weirdly, toothbrushes. Mulder provides all sorts of alternatives to incineration, landfills and ocean dumping. She explorers the cons of recycling-it can produce as much methane as cows; it consumes a lot of energy; it results in an often weakened product-as well as many pros, and she throws in plenty of mind-twisting sidebars: Yes, those styrene containers keeping your fast-food burger warm may well be serving you a dose of brain damage. Ultimately Mulder suggests we not make it in the first place. Enclosed in these pages is plenty of food for thought and examples for direct action. (Nonfiction. 8-12)

April 1, 2015

Gr 5-7-Both a history of trash and a manual of its elimination (or diminution, at least), this nifty book covers a variety of topics, from the trash pits (think archaic sanitary landfills) of the ancient Minoans to the gross filth of New York City in 1850. Employing readable language, Mulder chronicles the development of garbage disposal and goes on to castigate our throw-it-away-and-buy-a-new-one way of thinking. She discusses reformatting, reusing, and repairing to lessen the landfill burdens and presents ways to cut down the enormous amounts of rubbish humans produce on a global daily basis. "Trash Facts" pop up, as do "Take in the Trash" notes. Colorful photos record garbage issues around the world and innovative solutions to cope with this mountainous problem. Pair this with such green titles as Kim McKay and Jenny Bonnin's challenging True Green Kids: 100 Things You Can Do to Save the Planet (National Geographic, 2008) and Brad Herzog's simpler but eye-catching S Is for Save the Planet: A How-to-Be-Green Alphabet (Sleeping Bear, 2009) for a further look at our smelly, bulky accumulations and inventive ways to change our wasteful ways. VERDICT An informative call to action for young greenies.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015
Grades 3-6 A zero-waste world, in which people produce no garbage, seems like an impossible goal, but Mulder asserts that with some creative thinking it can someday become a reality, and she encourages young people to be more mindful about what they discard each day. The opening chapter puts human feelings about waste into historical context by comparing our consumer-driven society with the more conservation-minded attitudes of the past, and examines policies concerning recycling around the world. Mulder focuses not only on reducing consumption but also on how we can recoup some of the energy and resources that are thrown away. Ingenious ideas like insulating homes with jeans or weaving old fishing nets into carpeting are just a couple ideas that will spark readers' imaginations. With full-color photos of kids in action and startling but fascinating trivia about how much trash the world's population produces, this offers a very compelling argument for conservation. The book's mantra Take in the trash is about finding possibility in unexpected places.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)