Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago (Urban and Industrial Environments) [Paperback]

David Naguib Pellow (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 026266187X | ISBN-13: 978-0262661874 | Publication Date: September 17, 2004

In Garbage Wars, the sociologist David Pellow describes the politics of garbage in Chicago. He shows how garbage affects residents in vulnerable communities and poses health risks to those who dispose of it. He follows the trash, the pollution, the hazards, and the people who encountered them in the period 1880-2000. What unfolds is a tug of war among social movements, government, and industry over how we manage our waste, who benefits, and who pays the costs.Studies demonstrate that minority and low-income communities bear a disproportionate burden of environmental hazards. Pellow analyzes how and why environmental inequalities are created. He also explains how class and racial politics have influenced the waste industry throughout the history of Chicago and the United States. After examining the roles of social movements and workers in defining, resisting, and shaping garbage disposal in the United States, he concludes that some environmental groups and people of color have actually contributed to environmental inequality.By highlighting conflicts over waste dumping, incineration, landfills, and recycling, Pellow provides a historical view of the garbage industry throughout the life cycle of waste. Although his focus is on Chicago, he places the trends and conflicts in a broader context, describing how communities throughout the United States have resisted the waste industry's efforts to locate hazardous facilities in their backyards. The book closes with suggestions for how communities can work more effectively for environmental justice and safe, sustainable waste management.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With more landfills per square mile than any other American city, Chicago has had some particularly colorful controversies over waste disposal over the last century. University of Colorado-Boulder sociology professor David Naguib Pellow traces these conflicts in Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago, examining how poor neighborhoods come to be burdened with a disproportionate amount of pollution and refuse. He offers background on Chicago's waste management from the 1880s to the present, focusing in particular on the struggle for environmental justice of the last two decades, and shows how "environmentally friendly" technologies like recycling plants and waste-to-energy incinerators actually end up adding to the pollution in poor neighborhoods.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"...insightfully assesses the ability of those at the bottom of the heap to mount an effective resistance for environmental justice." Jack Smith Environment

"...An indispensable book for anyone interested in waste...or the continued effects of racism and classism in American society." Elizabeth D. Blum The Public Historian

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (September 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 026266187X
• ISBN-13: 978-0262661874
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #337,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very interesting, but don't let this be your only guide, November 5, 2007

By 

Fiona - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago (Urban and Industrial Environments) (Paperback)

I came across this book while doing research on community-based organizations and the environment in Chicago. It's very informative because it gives a historical overview of Chicago's waste management, and because it gets into the nitty-gritty of conflicts within nonprofits in Chicago. There were a couple places though where I had to raise my eyebrow because the analysis seemed a little suspect. For example, the author uses cases of illegal dumping in Chicago to show how minority groups may be more concerned with recycling and the environment than is often thought in mainstream environmental organizations. It seems a little strange to equate recycling centers, and companies that only call themselves recyclers but are actually illegal dumpers.