Most of us no longer believe in the tooth fairy but we do believe every week or so the garbage fairy visits us to make our garbage disappear and the toilet fairy magically eliminates our eliminations with one flush.

Elizabeth got the idea to investigate the fairies. The book opens with Elizabeth weighing the garbage against the average American’s garbage output of 4.3 pounds per day. Her daily weightings gave me a feeling of gross out and laughter.

This is the theme of most of the book. In her tours of landfills, treatment plants, recycling centers, and the sewer systems she met hostility, regulations, and confronting the enormity of the situation.

Elizabeth faces a difficult situation of describing some of the buildings, machinery, and systems of our trash. How can one describe tons of trash? And perhaps the most difficult of all … how can she describe the smells?

Thankfully, Elizabeth has done that for us and open up a few eyes that there are no garbage or toilet fairies. ( )

Adult nonfiction. Royte explores the various aspects of garbage--landfills, recycling (paper, metal, e-waste, plastics), composting, and sewage treatment--spilling out all the details of what it contains, where it ends up, and how it gets there. She gives you more reasons to hate plastic (which turns out to be not really that recyclable at all, despite manufacturers' claims otherwise) and one more reason to consider organic produce (farmers aren't allowed to use sewage-turned fertilizer on it). A recommended read for anyone that is trying to be greener. ( )

Granted this is a little outdated in its stats in today's world, but that doesn't change the fact that this is an extremely powerful read! I am so fascinated about where our garbage goes, and how the whole ecosystem functions. Do the recyclables I send out actually get recycled? Where does the green waste I send out go? The further I dive into this, the more fascinated I am! ( )

Elizabeth is trying to find out from the kitchen waster basket where all her garbage ends up. She lives in NY city and talks a lot about FreshKills landfill which closed in 2001 (and reopened briefly to dispose of the World Trade Center debris). It is interesting how secretive Waste Management, et. el, were about viewing a landfill. She also follows the recycling through to the end etc. ( )

I grew up watching eco-conscious shows like 3-2-1 Contact and I've always had the recycling bug. When our city recycling program stopped taking glass last year, it was like a knife in the liver. It almost kills me to put glass in the garbage bin. I've always bought grocery items in glass jars specifically because they were not plastic and wouldn't end up in the ocean, killing off sea birds and marine life. I'm the type of person who gives my house guests a tour of where the recycling bins are and am not above helicoptering over my mother to make sure she's playing by the house rules. So when Garbage Land popped up in my Recommendations, I knew it would find its way on to my library hold list.

Royte is one committed lady. She logged and documented her trash, recycling and composting for nearly a year. She visited landfills, recycling plants, composting plants, sewage treatment plants and sanitation garages as well as participated in eco fairs and industry conventions. She learned a lot about where our wastes go and it's impressive, informative and surprising.

Do you recycle? Why do you recycle? Does it make you feel better about the consumer culture we live in? Do you know where your recycled items actually, finally end up? It might not be where you think. It might not even be as beneficial as you imagined. And in the grand scheme of it all, it might not make that much of an impact.

Most of all, Ryote gave me more food for thought - bigger fish to fry, so to speak. And I feel better about the glass going into my garbage bin - mostly. ( )