What We Leave Behind

What We Leave Behind A Birdwatcher's Dispatches from the Waste Catastrophe

Paperback (12 Oct 2023)

Save $1.73

  • RRP $14.62
  • $12.89
Add to basket

Includes delivery to the United States

10+ copies available online - Usually dispatched within two working days

Publisher's Synopsis

"Everything looked perfect. Sand - unique Baltic sand, the best in the world - and the calm sea. But wait. Something was amiss. Something was wrong"

It starts with a day at the beach. A single white sock that somehow spoils everything. It's enough to send writer and ornithologist Stanislaw Lubienski on a quest to understand what we throw away, where it goes and whether it will be our legacy.

By analysing items he unearths on his trips into nature - a plastic bottle, a tube of Russian penis-enlargement cream, a cigarette butt, an empty aerosol can - tracing their origins and explaining the harm they can do, he shows how consumer society has developed out of control, to the point of environmental catastrophe.

He also looks with a birdwatcher's eye at how various animals have come to adapt to and even rely on our rubbish, and interrogates the cultural significance of waste and the origins of our throw-away lifestyles. Finally, he adds a personal touch by examining his own "environmental neurosis" and by going out with refuse crews to watch them work.

While Lubienski never hectors his readers, nor shames them, his clear-eyed, persuasive and humble polemic reminds us what we, as individuals, can and cannot do to address an apocalyptic issue while there's still something worth saving.

Translated from the Polish by Zosia Krasodomska-Jones

Book information

ISBN: 9781529418866
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
Imprint: MacLehose Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 363.728
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 272
Weight: 196g
Height: 129mm
Width: 198mm
Spine width: 19mm