The big necessity : adventures in the world of human waste. - George, Rose, ....- (London : Portobello, 2009)
Produced behind closed doors, disposed of discreetly, hidden by euphemism, shit is rarely out in the open in 'civilised' society, but the world of waste - and the people who deal with it, work with it and in it - is a rich one. This book will take us underground to the sewers of Paris and London and overground, to meet the heroes of India's sanitation movement, the R&D lab-rats at the cutting edge of toilet technology, and the owner of the world's largest toilet paper collection. With a journalist's nose for a story, and a campaigner's desire for change, Rose George also addresses the politics of this under-reported social and environmental effluent, and the consequences of our reluctance to talk about it: bad sewage is the single biggest cause of death in the world. Witty, serious and original, The Big Necessity proves that shit doesn't have to be -- and shouldn't be -- a dirty word.