Fact Versus Conjecture in the History of Industrial Waste Utilization

This piece is a response to Pierre Desrochers' criticism of an article by me. This response challenges Desrochers' argument that market forces compelled nineteenth- and early twentieth- century manufacturers to recycle, voluntarily, the vast majority of their wastes. I argue that Desrocher...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEcon journal watch Vol. 9; no. 2; p. 112
Main Author Christine Meisner Rosen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Fairfax Fraser Institute 01.05.2012
Subjects
20th century
Consumption
Environmental impact
Historians
History
Industrial wastes
Manufacturers
Manufacturing
Meat industry
Regulation
Tropical diseases
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Summary:This piece is a response to Pierre Desrochers' criticism of an article by me. This response challenges Desrochers' argument that market forces compelled nineteenth- and early twentieth- century manufacturers to recycle, voluntarily, the vast majority of their wastes. I argue that Desrochers provides no counter-evidence that disproves my findings and that he bases some of his criticism on conjecture that is factually inaccurate and/or overly simplistic. I conclude that to do justice to this important and complex subject, historians need to investigate the barriers that discouraged manufacturers from using their wastes, as well as the full range of regulatory as well as market-based drivers that encouraged them to do so.
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ObjectType-News-1
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ISSN:1933-527X