A compelling rumination on detritus as an essential, meaningful, yet often problematic facet of human existence. This book starts with the premise that waste is inevitable in human society--and ends with a meditation on its inevitability. The Idea of Waste explores how we have grappled with both the material reality and the specter of this shapeshifting phenomenon throughout history--utilizing it, dreaming of overcoming it, yet never escaping it. John Scanlan explores what waste is and why it seems to be intrinsic to human life, at every turn, in every age and epoch. Finally, he demonstrates how waste never disappears, but rather only proliferates anew. Scanlan's compelling narrative shows waste to be both an enduring material consequence of human activity and an idea or state of being.