Science writer Elizabeth Royte provides an entertaining, enlightening and detailed introduction to the multifaceted subject of garbage -- very broadly defined -- in her new book.

Even environmental journalists who have spent considerable time covering garbage, sewage or other waste-related issues are likely to come upon new, eye-opening facts and insights as they accompany Royte on her inquisitive, often amusing, trek through the discard-piled byways of our waste-multiplying society.

At the very least, journalists who already know a good deal about her subject matter will be treated to an engaging work that provides an instructive example of how a skilled writer can make the most daunting and sobering subjects fun to learn about.

Consider this typical passage, from a chapter in which Royte, with the help of a government official, sets out to trace the underground path that her own household's effluent takes after it enters New York City's municipal sewer system and commingles with the waste from other residents and businesses along its route.

"During World War II, Americans were exhorted to save kitchen grease for explosives. I called American Waste Products, a local service provider, to see what became of the french fry oil they collected from Brooklyn restaurants. Like so many others in waste management, the company exercised its right to remain silent. I had no luck with two other grease recyclers, then reached an employee at Filta-Clean, who admitted they offloaded their stuff at A&L Cesspool Service, in Queens. 'I think they turn it into soap and cologne,' he said in a tone that reeked of Male Answer Syndrome. When I asked A&L to confirm this, they hung up on me."

The book begins as "a voyage of self-discovery" with Royte deciding to sort and weigh the contents of her own household's kitchen waste bin after growing "increasingly curious to learn what sort of impact my own 1.31 annual tons had as it meandered through the landscape."

Her effort to come to grips with her own family's waste-producing and disposal practices leads her to begin a wide-ranging exploration of the intricacies of waste-related policy, economics, sociology, psychology and science.

On her "far-flung travels with trash," she visits landfills, examines the pros and cons of under-sink waste grinders, discusses the role of holidays in proliferating trash, examines the origins of the paper used to print Garbage Land itself, meets people who make their own biodiesel, and introduces readers to devices like the Prolerizer, substances like humanure, and concepts like "zero waste," whose proponents "envision a future in which waste has been designed out of systems, in which nothing is buried or burned."

The book is brimming with arresting details.

Nineteenth-century New Yorkers "were just as balky about separating garbage" as the current-day residents of the same city.

Some garbage dumps dating back to the Roman Empire are still generating leachate.

Depending on how it's buried, a Granny Smith apple "can biodegrade completely in two weeks or last several thousand years."

More than simply recounting interesting facts, however, Royte, who has written for magazines including National Geographic and Smithsonian, and does justice to the assorted complexities and ambiguities of the interrelated subjects she discusses. She duly acknowledges that waste-related problems have no simple solutions, but regards them from a resolutely personal perspective, as well.

"I knew it would take laws (like landfill bans on single-use beverage containers and mandates for recycled content), sharp penalties, and massively collective consumer action to induce change," she observes near the end of the book. "Still, no matter how trivial my kitchen recycling operation might appear, I considered it a moral act. It reminded me of the connection between my daily life and the natural world, from which every bit of the stuff arrayed about me had come."

Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash, by Elizabeth Royte. Little Brown and Company, New York, Boston; ISBN 0-316-73826-3.