This is the question addressed in a new book called Waste Wars: Dirty Deals, International Rivalries and the Scandalous Afterlife of Rubbish by Alexander Clapp (2025).
'The combined weight of everything made by humans now outweighs every living thing on Earth!' [ref: Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, 2020]
Plastics weigh more than twice the weight of all marine and terrestrial animals: buildings and roads outweigh all trees & shrubs!
The weight of things that humans produce every week now exceeds the weight of 8 billion humans on Planet Earth!
Almost all these things end up in garbage dumps! - some very quickly- less than 6 months!
Clapp explores the history of the global trade in garbage and finds:
# at best, the system of where global garbage ends up is very poorly regulated - BUT
# at WORST the system is actively criminal!- the European Anti-Fraud Agency = waste trafficking is more
profitable than human trafficking!
Much of the garbage from developed countries - under the guise of 'recycling' & 'circular economies' ends up being shipped to developing countries. For example, Ghana where a significant amount of 50 million tonnes of e-waste every year ends and mens' health is ruined by burning these devices to 'recycle' the metals.
Clapp provides an account of 'a system in which the machinery of colonial extraction has been remade for the 21st century in order to allow the developed world to avoid the true cost of capitalist overconsumption.' [Bradley.J., The Saturday Paper, March 22-28,2025.
Lesson for us all - Minimise the amount of stuff we buy - and recycle as much as possible before we throw it away!
Ku-ring-gai Council has many possibilities for recycling stuff locally - and for composting Just consult the 'Net Zero' website!
[by David Smith for 'Electrifying Bradfield Inc.]
