Despite frequent claims that waste is being reduced, consumer-reliant economies, everyday consumption and the waste industry continue to produce and demand more waste.

Combining a lucid style with robust empirical and theoretical research, this book examines the root causes of the global waste problem, rather than simply the symptoms. It challenges existing waste policies, highlighting what needs to change if we are to get serious in tackling this global problem. It concludes with policy implications for shifting waste from an ‘end-of-pipe’ concern to being at the heart of the debate over decarbonization.

"This book doesn’t end on a recipe for solutions; it does something much more important. It identifies three major challenges in the form of research questions, with the answers to these questions forming the beginnings of solutions that are appropriately scaled to the problems of waste writ large." Discard Studies
"Providing a sweeping and detailed assessment of the global waste problem, this book speaks brilliantly to multiple audiences - from everyday consumers, to policymakers, to CEOs, activists and academics." Josh Lepawsky, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador
“Nicky Gregson persuasively argues that we need to reorient our understanding away from consumer responsibility to consumption as a global set of practices that structure our relations to the world.” Myra Hird, Queen’s University and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Nicky Gregson is Emerita Professor in Human Geography at Durham University.