What a Waste

Humans create mountains of garbage, but did you know you can use that waste to help the planet?

You can heat your house with poop, make coffee with filtered pee and blow your nose with your cereal box. People around the world are finding creative ways to transform food scraps, invasive plants and sea creatures into alternative fossil fuels and even plastics. There are cities reusing water and recycling paper, crops, and old clothes to help protect the land, forests and water.

In What a Waste, young readers will learn about cutting-edge projects to reuse and repurpose garbage, and the people behind these innovations. Do you want to become a waste warrior? Don't just talk trash, reuse it!
Key Selling Points:

• This forward-looking STEM book explores how we can use garbage to fight the effects of the climate crisis, and protect land, forests and water everywhere.

• Young people around the world are living with more floods, wildfires and other effects of climate change. A global survey in the Lancet reported that almost 60 percent of young people are "very worried" about climate change, and eco-anxiety among kids is on the rise.

• According the UN Environment Programme, humans create more than 2 billion tons of garbage every year. We make more than 400 million tons of plastic, and two thirds of that becomes trash.

• This book introduces young readers to innovative projects around the world that are using garbage to help the planet and gives readers practical actions they can take to waste less at home.

• Karen Tam Wu is a lifelong advocate for clean energy policies and nature conservation. She's a member of the BC government's Climate Solutions Council and is a board member of the Metro Vancouver Zero Emissions Innovation Centre.
Part of the nonfiction Orca Take Action series for middle-grade readers, this illustrated book examines practical ways waste can be transformed to protect the planet and fight the effects of the climate crisis.
Karen Tam Wu is a nature lover, outdoor enthusiast and a climate-policy nerd. For the last decade, Karen has been researching and promoting ways to reduce carbon pollution and use more clean, renewable energy. She works with citizen groups, companies, Indigenous communities and governments to protect healthy ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. Karen lives Vancouver, British Columbia, where she can smell cedars and the ocean, play in the mountains and ride her bike year-round. If you see Karen at conferences and meetings, she will likely have a container with her so she can rescue leftover food.

Bithi Sutradhar is a Bangladeshi illustrator and graphic designer who holds a Master of Publishing degree from Simon Fraser University, as well as an MFA and BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Dhaka. Alongside her professional illustration work, Bithi enjoys sharing her knowledge and skills through teaching. Her contributions have been recognized by educational institutions and government bodies such as the Ministry of Agriculture in Bangladesh. In 2024, she joined Orca Book Publishers, where she continues to bring stories to life through her illustrations. Bithi lives in Vancouver and loves exploring vibrant outdoor scenes in her spare time, finding inspiration in the city's natural beauty. What can you do? The problems facing the world today are big. Orca Take Action helps you understand important issues and shows how you can make changes. A better future for everyone starts with you! Waste warriors:
1. Find ways to reduce or reuse plastic.
2. Repair devices before replacing them.
3. Buy secondhand clothes or organize clothing swaps.

What if what you toss out and flush away could be used to help the planet? Cutting-edge projects are turning food scraps, old jeans, invasive plants and even poop and pee into fossil fuel alternatives, new clothes, drinks and more!
FIND OUT 9 WAYS YOU CAN HELP! Let's Talk Trash