Money over Matter

Spencer Schillerstrom                                                                                                                                       1/11/15

Blog 5: Money over Matter

            After reading the first few chapters out of Recycling Reconsidered by Samantha MacBride, it has come to my attention that money has always been the main concern when changes to waste disposal are made. Almost all the solutions that different environmental groups and governments have created are centered on incentivizing recycling and reuse using money. As a society, we are addicted to growth and profit, and when a solution is presented that does not support growth, it is almost always dismissed.

Nearly all of the solutions to poor waste management are shot down at some point because of financial reasons. For example, MacBride focuses a lot on the ‘Bottle Bill’ in her second chapter. The way the ‘Bottle Bill’ works is that people make a down payment when they purchase a beverage that they can get back if they return the bottle for reuse. In her book, she describes that the main argument against the bill is simply that prices will increase. Companies fight against the bill because it requires more production responsibility, and therefore more cost. People fight the bill because they don’t want to have to pay more money upfront. In the world today, if something isn't financially beneficial to everyone, it is not supported.

While I understand that waste management is a field of business and money puts food on the table, I have an issue with our current obsession with money. Instead of focusing on values and the longevity of our planet, our society cannot get away from growth. The ‘Bottle Bill’ is an example of this. While implementing it might not mean immense financial growth, it would make a very positive impact on our environment. The solutions that are presented today (like incineration for example) are created so that we can continue to use as much energy and create as much waste as possible. This is the “curious disconnect” that Cafaro outlines in his piece Beyond Business as Usual:  Alternative Wedges to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change and Create Sustainable Societies. Cafaro points out that if we really want to find solutions that are focused on improving our environment, we have to stop supporting the primary cause of climate change: economic and demographic growth. Cafaro describes that whenever people’s financial freedoms are threatened, they tend to disapprove even if that change is creating any form of social (or environmental) progress. We can find examples of this all throughout history. For example, Communism and Marxism were both forms of government that people hated, even though their concepts were promising on paper. As soon as people learned that their methods prevented growth, they closed themselves off completely.

If we want to survive as a society, we must move away from growth and profit oriented solutions. Morals should be re-introduced into America’s business model and ideas such as the ‘Bottle Bill’ should be given consideration beyond profit. Business or not, profit is just a short term benefit that will not have any significance if we don’t correct our current climate trajectory.