Cormac McCarthy, The Road (2006)

Perhaps the ultimate novel about trash - a novel in which trash is the main character. Some prefer Kerouac's version, but to me it's even more sentimental and bleak.

Infinite Jest (1996)

Another of the best books about trash, as deep and insinuating as trash itself. Wallace is like Fielding: his niceties become the object of their own parody, and this would seem like mere cleverness, except that it so insistently displays the limits of self-consciousness.

Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1865)

The Victorians didn't throw stuff away like we do, but they did burn a lot of coal, and they left behind a lot of ashes. They called these ashes 'dust'. Dickens set himself the task of sifting this dust. As a result, this is also Dickens' most technical novel: how do you describe something whose chance to be something is gone?

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516-1532)

In our current global struggle, we should draw freely on the experience of our Carolingian and Estensian anscestors. Maybe the Hippogriff can get us out of Iraq!

Marshall Sahlins, Culture and Practical Reason

Chapter 4, "La Pensee Bourgeoise", contains an edifying discussion of the American clothing system, complete with an appreciative reference to Bernard Rudofsky and an argument for the priority of culture over physiology in color.