"Avoided disposal costs" economics, which I helped pioneer in the 1970s and 1980s, has turned "toxic".
Normally, economically developed economies throw out more and more waste (garbage) as consumers gain confidence, buy new, and discard things of marginal value which take effort to maintain. When your neighborhood is wealthy, no one wants your "free" black and white television, and it goes into an attic or basement or garage.
As my generation became aware of population growth, finite resources, and habitat consumption, we were alarmed. We wanted to save trees, to avoid mining, to save endangered species, preserve habitat, and conserve energy and carbon. Recycling was a concrete, conservative, karma yoga way to do all of those things.
It seemed risky to say I'd get a job "recycling". At the time, Recycling was akin to dishwashing. I didn't know anyone wealthy doing it (unless you counted the same mills switching to using virgin material according to price points). The economics of making more money collecting scrap were at odds with providing the scrap more cheaply, which is what the Big Picture wanted. Recycling needed to be plentiful and cheap to win over mill consumers, and not owning a mill, I was at the collection end of that equation.
Normally, economically developed economies throw out more and more waste (garbage) as consumers gain confidence, buy new, and discard things of marginal value which take effort to maintain. When your neighborhood is wealthy, no one wants your "free" black and white television, and it goes into an attic or basement or garage.
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| Hong Kong Modern Lined Landfill SE New Territories |
It seemed risky to say I'd get a job "recycling". At the time, Recycling was akin to dishwashing. I didn't know anyone wealthy doing it (unless you counted the same mills switching to using virgin material according to price points). The economics of making more money collecting scrap were at odds with providing the scrap more cheaply, which is what the Big Picture wanted. Recycling needed to be plentiful and cheap to win over mill consumers, and not owning a mill, I was at the collection end of that equation.
