Rummage

'Brilliantly researched and stuffed to the brim with weird and wonderful facts. Rummage lifts the lid on rubbish to reveal the story of reuse and recycling in all its fascinating glory.' - Lara Maiklem, author, Mudlarking

'A marvellous history of the second and third lives of objects and, just as important, a timely reminder that there are ways out of a throw-away-society.' - Frank Trentmann, author of Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First

'Pertinent, fascinating and full of intricate, joyful detail.' - Annie Gray, author of The Greedy Queen

Rummage tells the overlooked story of our throwaway past. Emily Cockayne extracts glittering gems from the rubbish pile of centuries past and introduces us to the visionaries, crooks and everyday do-gooders who have shaped the material world we live in today - like the fancy ladies of the First World War who turned dog hair into yarn, or the Victorian gentlemen selling pianofortes made from papier-mâché, or the hapless public servants coaxing people into giving up their railings for the greater good.

In this original and fascinating new history, Cockayne illuminates our relationship to our rubbish: from the simple question of how we reuse and recycle things (and which is better), to all the weird and wonderful ways it's been done in the past. She exposes the hidden work (often done by women) that has gone into shaping the world for each future generation, and she shows what lessons can be drawn from the past to address urgent questions of our waste today.