In a global economy dependent upon ever rising levels of consumption, waste is the material artefact that is steadily consuming fragile eco-systems and accelerating the pace of climate change. In this book, an interdisciplinary group of scholars analyze waste not merely as a technical problem but as configurations of practices and meanings that are embedded in broader socio-cultural systems and ... Read moreinstitutional structures. This theoretically innovative, cross cultural and eminently practical study of waste, and how societies can better manage its deleterious consequences, is both timely and fascinating. Craig J. Thompson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA In gathering more contributors to 'waste's table', this volume demonstrates the claim made by Richard Wilk in its afterword: that waste is the single most important link between population, consumption and climate change. In showing how waste is inexorably a matter of consumption, it will surely gather more contributors to the debate. Nicky Gregson, Durham University, UK This volume has an absolutely essential message: achieving real sustainability requires understanding the social and cultural dimensions of consumption. In a carefully composed set of nuanced powerful chapters, some of the most eminent scholars in the field of critical consumption studies provide a wealth of arguments that help us realize why people consume and why the vicious cycles of production and consumption are so extremely hard to break. Here we learn, once and for all, that this concerns the habits of the heart and the deepest layers of identity production and that sustainable consumption simply will not be achieved just by adding more sophisticated recycling technologies or incentives to conserve. Sverker Soerlin, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden Among the strengths of the book are the diversity of the authors' backgrounds (engineering, business, sociology, etc.) and the variety of topics they address. The many good references and index increase the usefulness of this work. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. CHOICE, L. E. Erickson, Kansas State University Show Less