Mongo: Adventures in Trash [Hardcover]

Ted Botha (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 26, 2004

mongo n. 1 [1970s +] an idiot. 2 [1980s +] (US, New York) any discarded object that is retrieved. 3. [1980s +] (US, New York) a scrap-metal scavenger. (The Cassell Dictionary of Slang)

When journalist Ted Botha moved to New York from South Africa, where people constructed homes out of what others considered trash, he decorated his apartment with furniture he found on Manhattan streets. Soon he realized he wasn't the only person finding things of value in the garbage, and he began roaming the streets meeting all kinds of collectors, united by their obsession with mongo-any discarded item that is rescued from the trash.

Here is Botha's remarkable record of his travels among collectors, who are as varied as the kind of mongo they seek. They range from housewife to homeless man, from accountant to computer consultant, from retrenched bank worker to full-time collector. One man finds jewelry in the sludge of New York's sewers; another has built one of the most extensive rare book collections in the city. The myriad reasons for collecting open a window into the range of human desires: some people collect for fun, others to make a living; some to find friends, others to snoop; some to make a political statement, others because it is an addiction. Collecting mongo is a longtime, universal phenomenon, at last receiving a worthy-and appropriately addictive-literary appreciation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After moving to New York in the 1990s and furnishing his apartment with bounty from the city streets, the author discovered he wasn't the first or only enterprising scavenger around. In this entertaining narrative, Botha (Apartheid in My Rucksack) delves into a world of avid collectors who forage New York's garbage for everything from empty soda cans and leftover sushi to old coins and first editions. These treasures even have a distinct name—mongo—which The Cassell Dictionary of Slang defines as "any discarded object that is retrieved," Botha explains. Each chapter examines a different category of mongo seeker, from pack rats and preservationists to voyeurs and visionaries, whom Botha befriends and accompanies on their mostly nocturnal routes. Some of the most fascinating sections involve Dave, "The Treasure Hunter," whose frequent forays to Manhattan's landfills yield precious gems caked with mud; and "The Anarchists," a band of bicycle-riding young people who forgo grocery shopping in favor of gathering edibles from plastic bags outside restaurants. Steven, "The Dealer," a used- and rare-book merchant whose entire inventory comes from the street, emerges as one of the tour's most industrious characters; he gets up before dawn and "works more diligently than anyone in an office, seven days a week." Though some of Botha's observations are repetitive, he's an able guide through the undisputed capital of mongo. His sensitive and nonjudgmental study portrays a previously overlooked but resilient and passionate population as one that's worthy of attention and respect.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School - This book gives readers a peek into the underbelly of a thriving city and proves the maxim that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." While digging through the wealth of New York City rubbish, Botha met a variety of "mongo" collectors, whose reasons for their endeavors were as varied as their collections. Most urban dwellers will be familiar with the "survivalists" who gather aluminum cans, turn them in for the deposit, and earn a living this way. But they might not be aware of the territorial nature of these individuals, or how much like a job, with a route and a schedule, their collecting really is. Readers might think that they don't want to live like the "anarchists," who eat most of their food from the garbage, until they realize that the discarded sushi, health food, pastries, and pizza are not only delicious, but also help advance political views. Certainly among the most unusual are the "archaeologists," who use historical books, maps, and magazines to locate turn-of-the-century privies. Then they approach people about digging up their yards, hoping (and often succeeding) to find items that fell down outhouses a century ago. And there's money in mongo - finding first-edition books on the street and selling them for hundreds of dollars is another lucrative activity. Botha's book will appeal to the thrifty, the nosy, the entrepreneur, the environmentalist, and the artist. - Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1st U.S. ed edition (June 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582344523
• ISBN-13: 978-1582344522
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #412,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brave new world scribed in neat prose, June 15, 2004

By 

C. Ebeling "ctlpareader" (PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mongo: Adventures in Trash (Hardcover)

By the time Ted Botha notes "the civilian dread of the collector who might be a lunatic," about three quarters of the way through MONGO, the reader is no longer a civilian. The reader is helping to open a black garbage bag, waiting to see what is inside. Botha is writing about the people who cause passers-by to quicken their pace or cut a wide berth, those who mine trash if not for survival than for a reason to live. Botha set out to find out what makes them tick, and in doing so has opened up a very surprising world filled with fascinating, intelligent characters who blow away assumptions.

For the most part, Botha's world is New York City. He slips quietly and wide-eyed into each foray into an aspect of collecting but soon peels away aspects of the experience to reveal startling secrets. The author's tour guides live a little differently and are willing to put up with dirt, sludge, sewage and rotting garbage, not to mention the disdain of doormen and other "civilians." There are people who feed a whole commune from garbage cans, who furnish huge spaces, even build with found materials. There are hunters who excavate landfill and come up with relics from the Revolutionary War and the 19th century. There are the preservationists who have saved segments of the city's former grandeur when parking lots and glass buildings have gone up in their place. There are first editions of world classics, jewels and works of art.

Botha writes assuredly, making for a quick-paced but thoughtful book reminiscent of John McPhee's work. He does not impose value judgments or undue insights. Rather, he goes along for the ride and does a fine job of introducing a very wide-ranging social, psychological, economic culture that makes sense. In the end, it is the "respectable" middle and upper classes who have thrown away perfectly good things, in some cases deliberately poisoning them or creating laws to discourage pickers, who leave us scratching our heads.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Garbage Lives, October 29, 2004

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mongo: Adventures in Trash (Hardcover)

Many people collect things, from books to stamps to shoes; it's usually a harmless diversion, perhaps even a social or educational outlet. Collecting garbage, that's something street people do. But that's not nearly the whole story. In _Mongo: Adventures in Trash_ (Bloomsbury), Ted Botha has reported on New York street collectors. "Mongo" is slang that originated in New York in the 1980s for "any discarded object that is retrieved." This decidedly does not mean mere garbage, the worthless rotting ephemera which no one wants. There are plenty of discarded things, however, from books to wood scraps to blocks of buildings, which the person who did the discarding thought were worth zero and which the eventual collector thought had value. And many times, that value is in the thousands. Frequently this is a surprising story of rags literally going to riches. Botha reminds us, "The street collector you see today could well be a bum or a lunatic, that's true enough, but just as easily a millionaire, a schoolteacher, an accountant, a doctor, a housewife." He has contacted all these levels to report on them.

This is a New York story, for a good reason. All mongo collectors of all levels "... agree on one thing: New York can't be beat." The reason is simple: "Great wealth makes great garbage." There is great wealth, true, but also people live very close together, meaning that collectors have to range minimally, and there is frequent turnover of renters. Remarkably, mongo collectors all are breaking the law. In New York City, garbage placed for pickup is no longer anyone's property but the city's. Even official sanitation workers are forbidden to take anything for themselves. Botha never once heard of anyone picked up for picking up garbage, so the regulations about it seem to be universally ignored.

The lowest of the low are the black bag people, those who hunt inside black plastic garbage bags. They have to look through genuine garbage, of course, but can find watches, rings, and even wallets, which they can sell on the street. Somewhat above the black baggers are those who are eating garbage. The best garbage to eat is thrown out by restaurants, and the best time to hunt for such stuff is at closing time. "Sometimes they put the food at the top of the bag so it is easier to find," explains once such collector. Some are dedicated anarchists, loosely organized to share found food so that eating this way is a political option and a rebellion against consumerism. Higher in the hierarchy are the canners, those who survive on what they can make by selling recyclable cans. Mongo is sometimes about making a living, and sometimes about making a life. A Chelsea woman found a computer in the trash several years ago, and from that taught herself to repair found computers, which she now resells. There is a former bank employee here who specializes in books and printed ephemera. He has found a first edition of _Finnegans Wake_ as well as signatures of Benjamin Disraeli and Aaron Burr. There are a couple who dig down in the grounds that used to house outhouses; they can get bottles worth thousands of dollars. Another excavates sludge for what has gone down modern sewers. There are artists who make an entire domestic statement with a folk-art installation of _objets trouvés_. There is the conservator who picks up valuable exotic wood for reinstallation into other houses. There are many collectors here with a passion for what they do, and very few outright loonies. With wide-eyed curiosity, and an agreeable friendliness he shared with his subjects as he does with his readers, Botha has dug up a strange and valuable portion of the national economy.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An adventure it is, February 2, 2005

By 

Dumpster Diva "May the trash be with you" (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mongo: Adventures in Trash (Hardcover)

I truly enjoyed Ted Botha's story of the characters he encountered in search of Mongo,As any dumpster diver knows there are treasures to be found in dumpsters everywhere. Ted Botha does an excellent job of giving us insight into the world of the amazing and gifted people involved in dumpster diving in the streets of New York. The only thing I would have liked to have seen in this book is pictures of some of the incredible things rescued others considered trash. The individual & group efforts that were undertaken on the streets to perserve the wonderful history & culture of New York are incredible. Thank you Ted for showing the world that Dumpster Divers can be intelligent,resourceful,caring, creative & artistic human beings.