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9781538110324

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Throwaway Nation is an extensively researched and entertainingly written examination of the detritus of our industrialized and consumer culture: from landfills to toxic waste and from fouled air to the North Pacific gyre. In lively and informed prose, Jeff Dondero takes us on a cradle-to-grave journey that materials take as they pass from the natural world, into our everyday lives, possibly through the recycling process, to the trash bin, and to a final resting place. Packed with facts, tidbits, and insight, Throwaway Nation also provides solutions, small and large. -- Kevin Wehr, Professor of Sociology, California State University Sacramento

Throwaway Nation is an extensively researched and entertainingly written examination of the detritus of our industrialized and consumer culture: from landfills to toxic waste and from fouled air to the North Pacific gyre. In lively and informed prose, Jeff Dondero takes us on a cradle-to-grave journey that materials take as they pass from the natural world, into our everyday lives, possibly through the recycling process, to the trash bin, and to a final resting place. Packed with facts, tidbits, and insight, Throwaway Nation also provides solutions, small and large. -- Kevin Wehr, Professor of Sociology, California State University Sacramento Starred Review: Humans are the only known species to create non-biodegradable waste, according to science writer Dondero. While our microscopic predecessors left us with an oxygen-rich atmosphere and enriched soils, we pollute. While populations of other animal species reach a balance in nature, we proliferate exponentially. As a species, we produce many tons of waste every second, fouling our air, water, and land and threatening our future. In Throwaway Nation, Dondero enumerates our many wasteful ways, explains their consequences, and offers remedies. He asks every reader to help, suggesting actions that we can take as individuals and identifying difficult societal shifts needed to mitigate climate change, pollution, and depletion of natural resources. As the author's interests are wide-ranging-including debris in space, hours wasted in offices, and needless government spending-there should be a topic of concern for every reader. * Library Journal *

Starred Review: Humans are the only known species to create non-biodegradable waste, according to science writer Dondero. While our microscopic predecessors left us with an oxygen-rich atmosphere and enriched soils, we pollute. While populations of other animal species reach a balance in nature, we proliferate exponentially. As a species, we produce many tons of waste every second, fouling our air, water, and land and threatening our future. In Throwaway Nation, Dondero enumerates our many wasteful ways, explains their consequences, and offers remedies. He asks every reader to help, suggesting actions that we can take as individuals and identifying difficult societal shifts needed to mitigate climate change, pollution, and depletion of natural resources. As the author’s interests are wide-ranging—including debris in space, hours wasted in offices, and needless government spending—there should be a topic of concern for every reader. * Booklist * Throwaway Nation is an extensively researched and entertainingly written examination of the detritus of our industrialized and consumer culture: from landfills to toxic waste and from fouled air to the North Pacific gyre. In lively and informed prose, Jeff Dondero takes us on a cradle-to-grave journey that materials take as they pass from the natural world, into our everyday lives, possibly through the recycling process, to the trash bin, and to a final resting place. Packed with facts, tidbits, and insight, Throwaway Nation also provides solutions, small and large. -- Kevin Wehr, Professor of Sociology, California State University Sacramento

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Jeff Dondero has a diverse background and experience in writing, ranging from web content, B2B, books, hard news, and interviews to feature writing. He began his career as stringer and freelancer for the San Francisco Examiner, worked as a reporter and editor for several suburban newspapers, was the entertainment editor for The Marin Independent Journal, a writer and editor of various magazines, wrote for KTVU-TV in the San Francisco Bay Area, toiled in a trade magazine mill, and created a website dedicated to sustainable construction industries (http://www.greenbuildingdigest.net/). He was invited as a writer-in-residence at the art colony in Rancho Vista, Arizona in 2014, where he wrote a slim volume of poetry. He continues to expand his national readership with books, social media, various writers’ blogs and websites, radio and television appearances. Jeff Dondero is also the author of The Energy Wise Home: Practical Ideas for Saving Energy, Money, and the Planet (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) and The Energy Wise Workplace: Practical and Cost-Effective Ideas for a Sustainable and Green Workplace (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).

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