3 ms·

I only have 2 categories of recycling, and even those can be a hassle (e.g., I can never if soft plastic bags go in the plastic bin). But I too get the warm "fu

I only have 2 categories of recycling, and even those can be a hassle (e.g., I can never if soft plastic bags go in the plastic bin). But I too get the warm "fuzzies" when I do it. But those fuzzies are more than just being seen as "eco-conscious" or whatever, it's about efficiency. We go through enormous lengths to be efficient about our time, sleep, food we eat, etc. Being efficient with the products we use and waste we create makes me feel like my life is running like a precision machine rather than a beat up old clunker. I'd personally love the concept of living a life that created no waste, where every output I created could be used as another's input. Alas, I don't think we're there yet.

baq 8y ago
we used to be there before industrialization. there was scarcely any waste - pretty much everything solid except broken pottery was repurposed for something else. the challenge is making it reasonable to do when economies of scale make it cheaper to discard stuff instead of reuse.
- speedplane 8y ago
  There was plenty of waste pre-industrialization... e.g., the most basic form: feces. In some cases, industrialization made us more efficient with our waste; modern waste management plants can turn feces into methane and heat homes. Industrialization's negative effect wasn't about efficiency, it was that it allowed us to create far more stuff. Today, we go through far more single-use products than ever could have been imagined pre-industrialization. We're far more efficient about handling that waste than they were, but because we create so, so much more of it today, the net effect is more waste. So even though industrialization had a big effect, it's not for the reasons you raise. Going one step further, industrialization doesn't have to be the enemy. There could very plausibly exist a society with mass plentiful produced goods that all get easily recycled/reused. Industrialization can help here.

baq 8y ago

we used to be there before industrialization. there was scarcely any waste - pretty much everything solid except broken pottery was repurposed for something else. the challenge is making it reasonable to do when economies of scale make it cheaper to discard stuff instead of reuse.

speedplane 8y ago
There was plenty of waste pre-industrialization... e.g., the most basic form: feces. In some cases, industrialization made us more efficient with our waste; modern waste management plants can turn feces into methane and heat homes. Industrialization's negative effect wasn't about efficiency, it was that it allowed us to create far more stuff. Today, we go through far more single-use products than ever could have been imagined pre-industrialization. We're far more efficient about handling that waste than they were, but because we create so, so much more of it today, the net effect is more waste. So even though industrialization had a big effect, it's not for the reasons you raise. Going one step further, industrialization doesn't have to be the enemy. There could very plausibly exist a society with mass plentiful produced goods that all get easily recycled/reused. Industrialization can help here.