Waste of a Nation

In India, you can still find the kabaadiwala, the rag-and-bone man. He wanders from house to house buying old newspapers, broken utensils, plastic bottles—anything for which he can get a little cash. This custom persists and recreates itself alongside the new economies and ecologies of consumer capitalism. Waste of a Nation offers an anthropological and historical account of India’s complex relationship with garbage.Countries around the world struggle to achieve sustainable futures. Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey argue that in India the removal of waste and efforts to reuse it also lay waste to the lives of human beings. At the bottom of the pyramid, people who work with waste are injured and stigmatized as they deal with sewage, toxic chemicals, and rotting garbage.Terrifying events, such as atmospheric pollution and childhood stunting, that touch even the wealthy and powerful may lead to substantial changes in practices and attitudes toward sanitation. And innovative technology along with more effective local government may bring about limited improvements. But if a clean new India is to emerge as a model for other parts of the world, a “binding morality” that reaches beyond the current environmental crisis will be required. Empathy for marginalized underclasses—Dalits, poor Muslims, landless migrants—who live, almost invisibly, amid waste produced predominantly for the comfort of the better-off will be the critical element in India’s relationship with waste. Solutions will arise at the intersection of the traditional and the cutting edge, policy and practice, science and spirituality.

An in-depth investigation of India’s feeble fight against mountains of consumerist waste [with] robust statistics, compelling history, and telling case studies…The result is both beguiling and disturbing…The authors reveal the complex cultural, social, political and religious hurdles that hamper the country’s struggle with waste., Waste of a Nation is an elegant and forceful examination of this underside of Indian life, hiding in plain sight on every street. It mixes slices of city life with analysis of both the cultural background behind India's obsession with recycling and its potential role in greening a country that's urbanizing and industrializing probably faster than anywhere else on Earth., Doron and Jeffrey are admirably thorough…but also alive to a good story…The ordinary waste of residents of Indian metropolises has ballooned to levels that are essentially unmanageable, with the result that landfills are overflowing, sometimes even combusting, and liquid sewage is pumped into rivers and the sea. It is a horrifying situation., A 360-degree look at waste, from production to disposal to reuse, and all the intervening steps during this journey that intersect with caste, class, and technology…Doron and Jeffrey present a riveting account of contemporary life in India., Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey seek to capture not India’s increasing wealth but its rapidly growing waste—a largely neglected subject. Their travels take them through rivers overflowing with human ashes and industrial waste, sewers swirling with noxious gases, toilets topped with excrement-filled cesspits and teetering garbage landfills…They return with a stunning—and alarming—picture of a nation choking on its own garbage…Their travels through India’s wastelands surprise, engage and inform readers.

Assa Doron is Professor of Anthropology and South Asia at the School of Culture, History, and Language, Australian National University. Robin Jeffrey is Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore, and an emeritus professor of La Trobe University (Melbourne) and the Australian National University (Canberra).