An ALA Notable Book
“The year was 1987 and a ship full of trash was about to become famous…The narrative is immensely readable…A fresh take on a story of old garbage guaranteed to spark conversations and a desire for actions among students. Highly recommended.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
A garbage barge that can’t find a place to welcome it sparks a recycling movement in the United States in this smart and smelly picture book from the author of Earmuffs for Everyone.
Lowell Harrelson wanted to turn trash into methane gas so he rented a barge called Morbo 4000. His plan was to ship the garbage from New York to North Carolina, but as the barge floated down the coast, no state would let him dock because of smelly waste on board! The barge became a mockery and the butt of many jokes in the media. What started as an attempted business venture turned into quite the predicament for Mr. Harrelson.
Mobro 4000 roamed the seas for forty-five days and traveled a distance of 6,000 miles. While awaiting its fate, the trash floated in New York’s harbor, garnering much attention by onlookers. Green Peace activists put up a large banner across the barge that read, “NEXT TIME…TRY RECYCLING.”
Even though the garbage barge was a farce, the unintended consequence inspired America to find a new way to deal with its trash.
McCarthy sets her historical scene with three iconic 1980s images: a Mustang GT, an Apple “phone book” computer, and big hair, all depicted in McCarthy’s caricature-ish bug-eyed illustrations. She then introduces the situation: in 1987 Lowell Harrelson, a visionary businessman, commissions a barge loaded with 3,186 tons of garbage to take off from New York, head for North Carolina, and turn the garbage into energy, a process shown in a double-page diagram. When the press gets wind of the situation, public outcry at numerous ports of call denies the barge permission to land. As the barge travels from North Carolina to Alabama to Louisiana to Mexico the same refrain—“the garbage was not welcome”—emphasizes the futility of the plan. The contents are finally burned (although McCarthy does not specify where in the text), which reduces the bulk to four hundred tons of ash; but as one person’s trash may become another’s treasure, the episode wakens a national consciousness about reuse and recycling, further explored in an entertaining and informative back-matter discussion. An extensive bibliography is appended.
