Trash Revolution

Using the typical contents of a child's school backpack (defined as water, food, clothing, paper, plastic, metals, electronics), this book explores the life cycle of stuff, including lots of ways to reduce, reuse or recycle waste along the way. Full color.

Think you know all about how your stuff impacts the environment? Think again! Where did all our “stuff” come from? And where does it go when we’re done with it? Kids find out by tracking the life cycles of typical items in a school backpack — water, food, clothing, paper, plastic, metals and electronics. Though they all end as waste, there are lots of decisions to be made along the way. And kids will see that there’s an important, constructive role they can play by making choices that are good for them — and for the planet! A cotton T-shirt. A plastic water bottle. A cell phone. Kids will never look at their stuff the same way again!

A critical and entertaining exploration of advertising and its influence. For children growing up in an advertising-saturated world, here’s an eye-opening explanation of what it is, how it works and why that matters. The book covers everything from the components of an ad campaign to the ways marketers seek to influence behavior, then brings it all to life by creating two fictional advertising plans. It also describes how digital technology allows companies to track people and how that impacts privacy. It’s a savvy look at the business of advertising that empowers kids to think critically and be discerning. Kids are suckers for advertising? Not the ones who read this book!

In an unnamed Third World country, in the not-so-distant future, three “dumpsite boys” make a living picking through the mountains of garbage on the outskirts of a large city. One unlucky-lucky day, Raphael finds something very special and very mysterious. So mysterious that he decides to keep it, even when the city police offer a handsome reward for its return. That decision brings with it terrifying consequences, and soon the dumpsite boys must use all of their cunning and courage to stay ahead of their pursuers. It’s up to Raphael, Gardo, and Rat—boys who have no education, no parents, no homes, and no money—to solve the mystery and right a terrible wrong. Andy Mulligan has written a powerful story about unthinkable poverty—and the kind of hope and determination that can transcend it. With twists and turns, unrelenting action, and deep, raw emotion, Trash is a heart-pounding, breath-holding novel.

The amazing story of what Inc. magazine called “the coolest little startup in America.” Tom Szaky dropped out of Princeton a decade ago to found TerraCycle, a company that makes the nonrecyclable recyclable. TerraCycle is now at the forefront of the eco-capitalist movement, partnering with more than 35 million people in twenty countries in the collection of waste and transforming that waste into useful products. Creating trash cans from chip bags and plastic benches from cigarette butts, TerraCycle has redefined recycling. Revolution in a Bottle is a rollicking tale of entrepreneurial adventure and an essential guide to creating a company that’s good for people, good for profits, and good for the planet. Since Revolution in a Bottle was first published in 2009, TerraCycle has grown dramatically from a small company offering worm poop in a soda bottle to a pioneer of recycling worldwide. This completely revised and expanded edition continues the story of this incredible company.

Egypt's January 25 revolution was triggered by a Facebook page and played out both in virtual spaces and the streets. Social media serves as a space of liberation, but it also functions as an arena where competing forces vie over the minds of the young as they battle over ideas as important as the nature of freedom and the place of the rising generation in the political order. This book provides piercing insights into the ongoing struggles between people and power in the digital age.

Uses trash as the unlikely metaphor to show how African films have depicted the globalized world

Archaeologists and anthropologists have long studied artifacts of refuse from the distant past as a portal into ancient civilizations, but examining what we throw away today tells a story in real time and becomes an important and useful tool for academic study. Trash is studied by behavioral scientists who use data com­piled from the exploration of dumpsters to better understand our modern society and culture. Why does the average American household send 470 pounds of uneaten food to the garbage can on an annual basis? How do different societies around the world cope with their garbage in these troubled environmental times? How does our trash give insight into our attitudes about gender, class, religion, and art? The Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste explores the topic across multiple disciplines within the social sciences and ranges further to include business, consumerism, environmentalism, and marketing to comprise an outstanding reference for academic and public libraries.