Frank Ackerman is the Director of the Research and Policy Program at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Swarthmore College.
Recycling is the process of turning used products into raw materials that can be used to make new products. Its purpose is to conserve natural resources and reduce pollution. Recycling reduces energy consumption, since it generally takes less energy to recycle a product than to make a new one. Similarly, recycling causes less pollution than manufacturing a new product, and conserves raw materials. It also decreases the amount of waste sent to landfills or incinerators. Although people have always reused things, recycling as we know it today emerged as part of the modern environmental movement.
During World War II, Americans experimented with conservation and recycling as a matter of national security. Afterward, 1950s middle class life unapologetically adopted the ethics of expansion and newness. As more and more middle-class Americans began to express environmental attitudes, the wastefulness of modern consumption became obvious to more and more consumers. More Americans than ever before became willing to integrate such practices into their lives as part of a commitment to the environment. For instance, most children born after the 1980s assume the “recycle, reduce, and re-use” mantra has been part of the U.S. since its founding. In actuality, it serves as a continuation of the cultural and social impact of Earth Day 1970 and the effort of Americans to begin to live within limits.
Belittled by many environmentalists, recycling often seems like busy-work for kids with little actual environmental benefit. However, such a minor shift in human behavior suggests the significant alteration made to many humans’ view of their place in nature by the late 1900s. This change in worldview, caused by many political, social, and intellectual shifts, forced humans in developed nations to question their lack of restraint. In particular, the culture of consumption of post-World War II America re-enforced carelessness, waste, and a drive for newness. Environmental concerns contributed to a new “ethic” within American culture that began to value restraint, re-use, and living within limits. This ethic of restraint, fed by over-used landfills and excessive litter, gave communities a new mandate in maintaining the waste of their population. Re-using products or creating useful byproducts from waste offered application of this new ethic while also offering new opportunity for economic profit and development.