With the people of Lowndes Country forced to live in squalor, and burdened by an unaffordable fix, Flowers exposes the true injustice of the situation and how it can be remedied, from both sides of the political spectrum. This is a powerful and moving book that deserves wide readership.
Pamela Rush didn’t get the home she deserved. She tried ... Catherine Coleman Flowers, an environmental activist who was recently awarded a MacArthur 'genius' grant, tells Rush’s story in Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret. The book spotlights an unpleasant and complicated problem — the lack of proper waste sanitation in rural America — and the phenomenal toll it takes on public health and dignity ... Flowers brings an invigorating sense of purpose to the page. Waste is written with warmth, grace and clarity. Its straightforward faith in the possibility of building a better world, from the ground up, is contagious.
Mixing memoir, civil rights history, and polemic, this blunt litany by Flowers delivers a call to action for all concerned about sustainable solutions to the shamefully inadequate environmental infrastructure, policies, and practices in the United States.
In Waste, Flowers recounts a lifetime of advocacy that has culminated in the battle for one Alabama county. Flowers was raised by Civil Rights activists, with others in and out of her home, and so advocacy has been a theme throughout her life ... Flowers shares many insights into America’s need for environmental justice. 'I believe we will find solutions if we can direct the energies of academics, business, government, and philanthropy toward finding them,” she writes, “and that’s where public policy comes in: to make this issue a priority, set standards for how we will live in the United States, and provide incentives for innovative solutions.' ... Her direct, easy-to-follow prose offers a plain look at the challenges that face many people in poverty and the value of activism. The lessons she takes from seeking wastewater solutions may inspire advocates nationwide.
In an imperfect blend of memoir and reporting, the author recalls her years of work to ease conditions so unsanitary a U.N. official said he hadn’t seen them 'in the first world.' With admirable tenacity, Flowers cultivated reporters ... In a largely chronological narrative, Flowers tends to present facts in the order in which she learned them—not when readers most need to know them—and slows the pace with overlong digressions into her earlier years and unedifying passages on topics such as 'turning lemons into lemonade' and the effect of Jonathan Livingston Seagull on her life. The urgent message of the book, however, transcends its writing lapses, and it should raise much-needed awareness of a public health catastrophe ... A useful primer on why America’s treatment of raw sewage doesn’t pass the smell test.
