• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7
• Reading age: 9 to 12

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. Want to become a waste warrior in your community? It’s time to take out the trash!

Ever since she was a kid, Karen Tam Wu has been an environmental advocate. At the age of 12, after learning about the huge amounts of water and land needed to raise livestock, Karen became vegetarian—and still is. Armed with a degree in forest conservation, Karen has spent many years working to promote and protect healthy ecosystems and the communities that depend on these ecosystems. Nowadays, Karen helps decision makers understand what kinds of programs, laws and technologies leaders around the world are using to reduce carbon pollution and create clean renewable energy. She shares these lessons with community, government and business leaders to encourage them to do the same. Karen lives in Vancouver, where she can smell cedars and the ocean, play in the mountains and ride her bike year-round.

Karen Tam Wu's profile page

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, Bithi created the illustrations for the first three books in the Take Action series as part of an internship with Orca Book Publishers. Bithi lives in Vancouver and loves exploring the vibrant outdoor scenes in her spare time, finding inspiration in the city’s natural beauty.

Bithi Sutradhar's profile page