Raymond G. Stokes is Professor of Business History at the University of Glasgow and Director of the Centre for Business History in Scotland. Roman Köster is Assistant Professor of Economic and Social History at Bundeswehr University, Munich. Stephen C. Sambrook is Research Associate at the Centre for Business History in Scotland at the University of Glasgow.

• Introduction; Part I. Cleansing Services, 1945 to the 1960s: From Societies of Want to Societies of Purity: 1. Establishing (and re-establishing) an industry: waste services in the UK and Germany from the late nineteenth century to the 1950s; 2. Rationalization measures; 3. 'Salvage' and the industry; Part II. Grappling with Crisis: From the 1960s to 1980: 4. The waste flood; 5. Politicizing waste: national and regional legislation and political activism; 6. Coping with the crisis; Part III. Re-conceptualizing Waste and Conceptualizing Waste Management, 1980 to the Present: 7. Framing waste: measurement, regulation, and legislation in the 1980s; 8. The waste management industry since 1990.

'The Business of Waste presents a penetrating and deeply researched interdisciplinary study of the changing dimensions of waste management in Great Britain and Germany from 1945 to the present. The authors' detailed examination of the history strongly supports their conclusion that successful waste management policy requires cooperation between the private, public, and third sectors and the prioritization of social and political values over narrow economic ones.' Joel A. Tarr, Richard S. Caliguiri University Professor of History and Policy, Carnegie Mellon University