The Toxic Ship

"[B]rilliant . . . One of Müller’s main merits is that she has been able to offer a simultaneously concise, elegant, and illustrative narrative."

"An exceptional book about the history of a ship and the waste that it contained, a waste so extraordinary that it challenged the political order of Philadelphia, questioned the scientific authority of U.S. government agencies, and remade the global waste trade. . . . [W]hat Müller demonstrates so well was how this one ship with its one load of waste was itself a shadow proxy of the technological and scientific developments occurring across multiple industries, a history that is tightly linked to environmental justice concerns and long-standing patterns of racial and toxic colonialism in the United States and the Global South."

"Makes critical contributions to waste and discard studies, environmental history, and global environmental politics. Compellingly written, sourced and structured, it tells a hard-to-trace story that is fundamental to the history and politics of hazardous wastes."

"An important book that speaks to major issues about globalization and environmental justice. The public policy implications are significant."

"This compact volume is both a compelling yarn of the maritime migration of 15,000 tons of Philadelphia incinerator ash in the late 1980s and an impressively researched study of the ongoing problem of the international toxic waste trade. Müller never fails to see the big in the small in this strong addition to global environmental history."

"The Toxic Ship shows how and why incineration of Philadelphia's wastes shaped local environmental injustices and waste colonialism in multiple nations. Simone M. Müller's compelling history is an important contribution to contemporary debates about sustainable waste management practices."

"A deft philosophical and literary examination about what we throw away, where our discards go, who is harmed, and why, The Toxic Ship follows vessels that carry hazardous wastes but also carry the hazards of greed and racism as ballast. Müller's crackling prose and careful storytelling reveal how near-infinite wastes unto a finite planet leads to spatial, social, and economical consequences. An absolutely necessary book."