Garbage and Waste

Twenty-nine essays debate such issues as recycling, hazardous waste, government regulations, and garbage

Gr 10 Up--There's plenty of fodder here for heated classroom debates about recycling, hazardous waste, government regulations, and garbage in general. Twenty-nine essays range from carefully reasoned arguments backed by statistics to unsubstantiated generalizations. Their styles of presentation and attack vary widely enough to be the subject of a discussion of debating techniques and their effectiveness. Drawn from speeches, periodical articles, and industry reports, nearly all were originally published in 1995 or 1996. Groups of three or four essays on roughly the same side of an issue are presented with the same number of their opponents' views. Balancing articles generally do not answer one another point for point. An abstract of each essay appears in the table of contents, and a useful book and periodical bibliography and well-detailed index are appended. A list of "Organizations to Contact" includes the summaries of some 17 groups' purposes and activities. Oddly, the Canadian Wildlife Federation is listed, but not the (U.S.) National Wildlife Federation. While The Environmental Crisis (Greenhaven, 1991) provides additional stimulation through critical-thinking activities and bitingly satirical cartoons, Garbage and Waste lets the authors' opinions stand alone with no criteria for judgment. It is a good, current, supplemental purchase.

Ann G. Brouse, Big Flats Branch Library, NY

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