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, Starred Review

Dondero injects dry humor and some interesting trivia into the book, and each chapter has suggested actions for trying to reverse the trend toward disposability . . . There’s so much information collected in this one volume, it would be terrible to let it all go to waste. Learning about the scope of the problem can stoke the energy needed to tackle it head on.

The Progressive Populist

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