In this compelling and highly original book, Zsuzsa Gille investigates the allegation that European socialism was “wasteful” through close consideration of Hungarian waste relations from 1948 to 2004. With theoretical acuity and rich empirical detail, she documents decades of massive changes in the production, categorization, and politicization of different forms of waste, offering a valuable new approach through which to interpret socialist and capitalist societies alike.

Waste tends to be the province of environmental sociologists, garbologists, and historians who focus attention on “end-of-pipe” topics such as the distribution of risks, the contents of waste streams, and environmental justice movements. To broaden the scope of waste research, Gille introduces the concept of “waste regimes,” which is meant to draw attention to the cultural politics of waste production. With the rise of the communist party-state, for example, Hungary's waste regime became organized around a metallic model of waste, which fashioned scrap metal into an important economic resource, a potent political symbol, and a subtle disciplinary tool. Waste regimes are thus shown to incorporate dynamic interplay across a variety of social domains.

Also valuable is Gille's emphasis on the hybridity of waste—its material and social aspects. No model is perfect, meaning that waste can “bite back” at certain moments, leading to political response and material transformation. Consequently, all waste regimes are revealed to be “wasteful” in some way; one need only examine their socio-material consequences. The “cult of waste” that developed around the public collection of metal in Hungary also led to the general neglect of less recyclable, typically more hazardous forms of waste. When Hungary began to adopt a chemical model of waste in the 1980s, there was a sense of optimism that state recognition of environmental problems associated with past policies would lead to the creation of “a democratic and environmentally-friendly society.” The rising tide of privatization did not eliminate waste, however, but only shifted attention to the disposal side of waste relations and away from the realm of production. This changed not only the way waste was politicized in Hungary, it produced new sorts of waste and wastefulness as well.

At times, the book reveals its limitations, if only due to the relative newness of the field of inquiry. For Gille's “metatheoretical” approach to waste to achieve greater value across the social sciences would require more cross-cultural consideration than is within her means to provide. Her present approach is confined to Euro-American socialist and capitalist states, and thus it does not allow for a more general theory of waste as a socio-material phenomenon. At the same time, the book suggests many possible directions in which such a comparative project might proceed and sets a standard for the level of care and depth such an effort must aspire to.

Gille's book will be of interest to all those interested in state socialism and the “transition” to capitalism in Eastern Europe, particularly because her approach successfully weaves together socio-political, economic, and environmental factors within a single, comprehensive analysis.