BOOK REVIEW
A new book by Pathways contributor Patricia Ullman Entering the Mainstream: Cultivating Mindfulness in Everyday Life (A Manual for Practitioners, Teachers, and the Simply Curious)
REVIEW BY ALYCE ORTUZAR
Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash
By Elizabeth Royte 2006; Little, Brown and Company 336 pp (PB); $13.99 ISBN-13: 9780316154611
Lauded by critics as “brave,” “authoritative,” and “highly readable,” Entering the Mainstream features stories and guided meditations that are as stimulating to the seasoned practitioner as they are accessible to the novice. It is equally valuable for mindfulness teachers, offering guidance and a range of tools to help lead individuals and groups in urban settings. This new book and Patricia’s first book, Eight Steps to an Authentic Life: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times , are available on amazon.com.
That a book about garbage — a subject we can all relate to but would rather avoid discussing — can be as riveting and as informative as this book reflects the outstanding research and writing abilities of Eliza - beth Royte. Her chapter titles are just the beginning: “Quantifying in the Kitchen”, “Dark Angels of Detritus”, “Stocking the Active Face”, “The Spectacle of Waste”, and (my favorite) “Behold This Compost”. The last 2 chapters focus on “The Dream of Zero Waste” and “The Ecological Citizen”. Royte takes readers on a deep dive into our increasing amount of trash and our struggles to properly accommodate it. Since 1960, we have almost tripled our municipal waste stream. By 2003, we indi - vidually “generated 1.31 tons of garbage per year. Slightly less than 27 percent was composted or recycled; 7.7 percent was incinerated; and 65.6 percent was buried in a hole in the ground.” Royte begins her journey by first taking a close look into her own kitchen waste bin. She was truly surprised when an empty wine bottle weighed in on her kitchen counter scale at one pound. Royte also provides a detailed history of efforts in New York City to resolve crises resulting from garbage/waste disposal and lessons learned along the way. “In 1898, Tammany Hall recaptured the may - or’s office and ended the recycling program by restoring ocean dump - ing. The garbage killed the oyster beds and interfered with shipping.” The federal government finally banned ocean dumping in 1934. States vary when considering and choosing their energy options. Pennsylvania’s fifty-one landfills fill the state’s coffers with forty mil - lion dollars in fees from importing “ten million tons of waste per year from neighboring states. However, 86 percent of the more than 40,000 trucks transporting the waste into Pennsylvania that were inspected in 2001 had serious safety and environmentally-related violations that included leaks and inadequately covered loads.” In addition, covering these loads under several feet of dirt did not eliminate or reduce their environmental harms. Burying what we no longer want under several feet of dirt does not reduce or eliminate the harms they may pose. “When organic matter decomposes, it creates methane and carbon dioxide. Both are green- house gasses.” As the organic matter filters up through layers of buried garbage, it acquires and transports carcinogens into the environment that the wind can then carry into nearby offices and homes. Incineration, possibly even more than landfills, competes with the need to reduce our nation’s enormous amount of trash, because of the huge amount of tonnage incinerators require in order to operate. Ac- cording to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, that tonnage require- ment could interfere with and even discourage recycling. Landfill covers can also fail and give way in freezing temperatures and in thawing-and-freezing cycles. Critters such as woodchucks,
54—PATHWAYS—Winter 23
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