If there is room on your shelf, pick up a copy of Buckminster Fuller's Critical Path. He was a big believer in the idea that our problem lies in the fact that we don't use our materials very efficiently. He made the observation that the amount of sulfer mined in the US is about the same amount released by burning coal.

In my earlier reply, I may of given you the impression that I am not in favor of recycling. I am absolutly in favor it. We recycle everything possible, and in this most liberal town, there is place I can go to recycle damn near anything. But many of the materials I take there actually cost money to drop them off. They charge for electronics, for example, to make up for the cost of stripping the items down to components for shipping.

Bucky believed that our problems can be solved by good science and good design. That was his whole goal: More With Less. But he made another important observation: it takes time for good design and good science to percolate down to the general consumer. Sometimes, those changes take decades.

While I'm babbling on, I'll bring up another aspect of the recycling economy. When you get a chance, Google "Copper Theft" and behold the way the less honest have responed to an increase in metal prices. They are stealing air conditioners out of windows, pipes out of foreclosed houses, and even electrical wiring. The later has resulted in shutting down whole train stations (Rome's Termani, recently)and many deaths, because, well, sometimes the wires have something called high voltage electricity running through them. Catalytic converters are being stolen from cars for their platinum and nickel. Recently, a lot of homes were destroyed by a forest fire near here. There have been many reports of people going through the ashes of the homes loading up on scrap metal. You know, the stuff that didn't burn. Manhole covers are being taken, costing towns lots of money to replace them.