Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage with Heather Rogers

Author and filmmaker Heather Rogers will talk about her new book "Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage", a political history of rubbish in the United States. Joining her will be organizer and activist Monica Wilson from the grassroots group Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance, who will discuss recent Bay Area struggles against new garbage incinerators and the importance of addressing waste disposal issues in the context of race and class.

We will also be showing Heather's 20 minute documentary of the same name.

Every day a phantasmagoric rush of spent, used and broken riches flows through our homes, offices, and cars. The US is the planet's number one producer of garbage, and over the past 30 years America's garbage output has doubled. Rogers explains that, despite popular wisdom, this torrent of trash is not primarily the responsibility of the individual consumer, instead it's the outcome of a free market system that needs waste to maintain high consumption levels. To understand the roots of today's waste-addicted culture, Rogers examines the grisly, oddly fascinating underworld of trash.

Communities around California are fighting a new wave of incinerators marketed as "green energy" sources. Not only do these plants charade as environmentally friendly, they clearly violate principles of environmental justice, putting a disproportionate pollution burden on low-income communities of color. GAIA recently worked with residents of Alameda, San Leandro and Oakland to stop the city of Alameda from building a new incinerator in San Leandro. A key part of GAIA's approach is emphasizing that there are other solutions: we don't have to bury or burn garbage. GAIA members around the world advocate zero waste, which means eliminating both the volume and toxicity of waste.