Köster, Roman. Hausmüll: Abfall und Gesellschaft in Westdeutschland 1945–1990. Umwelt und Gesselschaft, edited by Christof Mauch and Helmuth Trischler, vol. 15. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co, 2017.
In the wake of the “economic miracle,” post-war West German society was confronted with a new challenge: the increase in consumption resulted in a dramatic increase in the amount of waste being produced. By the 1960s municipal waste management systems were stretched to their limits. An even bigger problem was how to prevent this waste from causing harm to humans and the environment. In this study of social attitudes towards waste, Roman Köster traces the development of a “new” environmental problem and the political, economic, and discursive strategies for dealing with it. (Text adapted from Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht and the Rachel Carson Center)