Each of us produces more than a half a ton of garbage every year. In Where Does Garbage Go?, Isaac Asimov discusses our garbage, what’s in it, where it goes, and why it sometimes come back to us.

For general information on the “Ask Isaac Asimov” series, see What Is a Shooting Star?

On the whole, the environmental books in the “Ask Isaac Asimov” series fare better with me than the astronomical books; perhaps this is because Asimov doesn’t cover environmental issues elsewhere for young children except in the relatively obscure Earth: Our Crowded Spaceship. As a result, I’m a bit less resentful of the incredible cost of this particular book.

There are a couple of points I think Asimov could have made, but didn’t— for example, in ages past, virtually all garbage produced by humans was biodegradable but that plastics and other modern materials have changed all that, or that there’s a tie-in between the increase in the human garbage problem and the human population problem.

These, however, are quibbles. It’s a good book, and I’d gladly recommend it to the appropriate audience.