How and why did your garbage stop heading to your local landfill - and instead wind up in the poorer parts of the world? For two years I traveled around the globe attempting to understand where trash gets shipped and why.

Check out my latest in @theatlantic.com! I write about "dystopian reality" of the global waste trade, reviewing a brilliant new book by @alexclapp.bsky.social (@littlebrown.bsky.social) "A colonoscopy in book form, an exploration of the guts of the modern world" www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

For @nytimes.com I wrote about what trash is doing to our planet. For much more analysis, and some potential answers to the crisis, please consider ordering my book, Waste Wars. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/o...

The wonderful journalist Alexander Clapp (@alexclapp.bsky.social) has a book coming out shortly with @littlebrown.bsky.social; very excited to read this! www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/alexa...

In one month:

In less than a decade, Ecuador evolved into a narco-state. How did it happened? “They’ve built a parallel state. Just as you or I pay taxes to our countries, so here residents pay taxes to the gangs.” Report by grantee Alexander Clapp for @economist.com. bit.ly/4fLcxC3

"I believe the money involved in this field" - toxic waste importation - "will exceed that of drugs and may take its place as a fueling force in this country." -1992 activist letter re: Guatemala in Waste Wars by @alexclapp.bsky.social hardcover.app/books/waste-... #CurrentlyReading #amreading

How and why did your garbage stop heading to your local landfill - and instead wind up in the poorer parts of the world? For two years I traveled around the globe attempting to understand where trash gets shipped and why.