Waste of a nation: garbage and growth in India

In India, you can still find the kabaadiwala, the rag-and-bone man.

He wanders from house to house buying old newspapers, broken utensils, plastic bottles - anything for which he can get a little cash.

This custom persists and recreates itself alongside the new economies and ecologies of consumer capitalism. 'Waste of a Nation' offers an anthropological and historical account of India's complex relationship with garbage.

Countries around the world struggle to achieve sustainable futures.

Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey argue that in India the removal of waste and efforts to reuse it also lay waste to the lives of human beings.