Pulp Non-Fiction. My career, developing recycling infrastructure. Markets, participation, and logistics make recycling more economical. People who want to recycle, and mills which can use waste materials as resources, working together. You know, the alternative to cutting down rain forests.
The success of recycling, in many ways, is no more important than the establishment of an infrastructure for laundromats. There weren't washing machines all over the country one hundred years ago. Now there are. They have created countless spare hours for poor women to use in more productive careers, education, etc. Like internet cafes in Africa, they bring tech access to the masses. But what could be more boring?
Part of the challenge for recycling culture is to accept our success and become boring. We were part of an environmental sustainability movement. In many ways, we were the most important part, as recycling saves carbon, energy, forests, and species, and creates wealth where there is poverty.
The temptation over the past ten years has been for recycling people like myself to try to find a new controversy, a new battle, a new war. We are like retired colonels who miss the days of bravery and grandness. The temptation to set off on a new crusade is understandable.
For me, the pursuit of recycling infrastructure has become about erasing national boundaries in order to make the solid waste hierarchy more efficient. We reduce mining by extending the lives of products already mined, for example. In doing so, we bring internet cafes to dark places. Others stay in the USA, and see "overseas" as a new adversary.
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| Who is really poisoning and destroying his brothers? |
Part of the challenge for recycling culture is to accept our success and become boring. We were part of an environmental sustainability movement. In many ways, we were the most important part, as recycling saves carbon, energy, forests, and species, and creates wealth where there is poverty.
The temptation over the past ten years has been for recycling people like myself to try to find a new controversy, a new battle, a new war. We are like retired colonels who miss the days of bravery and grandness. The temptation to set off on a new crusade is understandable.
For me, the pursuit of recycling infrastructure has become about erasing national boundaries in order to make the solid waste hierarchy more efficient. We reduce mining by extending the lives of products already mined, for example. In doing so, we bring internet cafes to dark places. Others stay in the USA, and see "overseas" as a new adversary.
