How do we decide what is junk? The discarded remnants of our daily lives may no longer be useful to us, yet John Scanlan proposes in On Garbage that our trash is actually a treasure trove of artifacts that reveals intriguing insights into the modern human condition and the evolution of Western culture. On Garbage is the first book to examine the detritus of Western culture in full range-not only material waste and ruin, but also residual or 'broken' knowledge and the lingering remainders of cul