Synopses & Reviews
Over the past two decades, concern about the environment has brought with it a tremendous increase in recycling in the United States and around the world. For many, it has become not only a civic, but also a moral obligation. Long before our growing levels of waste became an environmental concern, however, recycling was a part of everyday life for many Americans, and for a variety of reasons. From rural peddlers who traded kitchen goods for scrap metal to urban children who gathered rags in exchange for coal, individuals have been finding ways to reuse discarded materials for hundreds of years.
In Cash for Your Trash, Carl A. Zimring provides a fascinating history of scrap recycling, from colonial times to the present. Moving beyond the environmental developments that have shaped modern recycling enterprises, Zimring offers a unique cultural and economic portrait of the private businesses that made large-scale recycling possible. Because it was particularly common for immigrants to own or operate a scrap business in the nineteenth century, the history of the industry reveals much about ethnic relationships and inequalities in American cities. Readers are introduced to the scrapworkers, brokers, and entrepreneurs who, like the materials they handled, were often marginalized.and#160;
Integrating findings from archival, industrial, and demographic records, Cash for Your Trash demonstrates that over the years recycling has served purposes far beyond environmental protection. Its history and evolution reveals notions of Americanism, the immigrant experience, and the development of small business in this country.
Review
Zimring goes beyond the limited historical literature on municipal solid wastes. Cash for Your Trash gives us a sweeping account of industrial recycling long before residential recycling became popular. It is a fine contribution to urban and environmental history.
Review
"Cash for Your Trash is an insightful study that deepens our understanding of environmental history and contemporary environmental issues from the perspectives of business, social, and urban history."Joel A. Tarr, Carnegie Mellon University
Synopsis
Over the past two decades, concern about the environment has brought with it a tremendous increase in recycling in the United States and around the world. For many, it has become not only a civic, but also a moral obligation. Long before our growing levels of waste became an environmental concern, however, recycling was a part of everyday life for many Americans, and for a variety of reasons. From rural peddlers who traded kitchen goods for scrap metal to urban children who gathered rags in exchange for coal, individuals have been finding ways to reuse discarded materials for hundreds of years.
In Cash for Your Trash, Carl A. Zimring provides a fascinating history of scrap recycling, from colonial times to the present. Moving beyond the environmental developments that have shaped modern recycling enterprises, Zimring offers a unique cultural and economic portrait of the private businesses that made large-scale recycling possible. Because it was particularly common for immigrants to own or operate a scrap business in the nineteenth century, the history of the industry reveals much about ethnic relationships and inequalities in American cities. Readers are introduced to the scrapworkers, brokers, and entrepreneurs who, like the materials they handled, were often marginalized.
Integrating findings from archival, industrial, and demographic records,
Cash for Your Trash demonstrates that over the years recycling has served purposes far beyond environmental protection. Its history and evolution reveals notions of Americanism, the immigrant experience, and the development of small business in this country.
Synopsis
"An excellent historical account of recycling over the last 230 years." -Choice "The author deserves praise for his remarkable research and his attention to the particulars that defined the growth of the U.S. scrap industry. . . . For those who know little of the industry's past, an astonishing vista will open when they turn the pages of this book." -Scrap "Zimring goes beyond the limited historical literature on municipal solid wastes. Cash for Your Trash gives us a sweeping account of industrial recycling long before residential recycling became popular. It is a fine contribution to urban and environmental history." -Martin V. Melosi, author of Garbage in the Cities "Cash for Your Trash is an insightful study that deepens our understanding of environmental history and contemporary environmental issues from the perspectives of business, social, and urban history." -Joel A. Tarr, Carnegie Mellon University Long before our growing levels of waste became an environmental concern, recycling was a part of everyday life for many Americans for a variety of reasons. From rural peddlers who traded kitchen goods for scrap metal, to urban children who gathered rags in exchange for coal, individuals have been finding ways to reuse discarded materials for hundreds of years. In Cash for Your Trash, Carl A. Zimring provides a fascinating history of scrap recycling, from colonial times to the present. Integrating findings from archival, industrial, and demographic records, and moving beyond the environmental developments that have shaped modern recycling enterprises, Zimring offers a unique cultural and economic portrait of the private businesses that made large-scale recycling possible. Carl A. Zimring received his doctorate in history from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002. He was an Environmental Protection Agency fellow from 2000 to 2002 and is an assistant professor of social science at Roosevelt University.
Synopsis
In Cash for Your Trash, Carl A. Zimring provides a fascinating history of scrap recycling, from colonial times to the present. Integrating findings from archival, industrial, and demographic records, and moving beyond the environmental developments that have shaped modern recycling enterprises, Zimring offers a unique cultural and economic portrait of the private businesses that made large-scale recycling possible.
About the Author
CARL A. ZIMRING is a visiting assistant professor of history at Oberlin College. He received his Ph.D. in 2002 from Carnegie Mellon University.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 Rags and Old Iron
2 New American Enterprises
3 Nusiance or Necessity
4 All Us Cats Must Surely Do Our Bit
5 Size Matters
6 It's Not Easy Being Green
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index