Cash For Your Trash: Scrap Recycling in America

by Carl A. Zimring

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2005

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

My good friend Carl wrote this... and I'm late in getting to it. Carl has an amazing mind and a good sense of humor so I'm looking forward to it. Don't every play Trivial Pursuit (any editions) with Carl. He just needs one turn. Just one.

Finished up on a plane trip on New Years' Day. As the book is very informative in nature, it made for better airplane reading than bedtime reading. Carl really covered all the bases with the U.S. history of the scrap and industry, or "rags and old iron," from Paul Revere to modern city recycling plans. It touches so many aspects of study as well - sociology, business, technology, environmental issues, and ethnography.

I wish that there could have been more anecdotal flavor but as it's written for an academic audience, I understand that people will need this to be more focused on the facts, and less on the pleasure of reading.

Also, and maybe this is another aspect of the type of book, it seemed like sometimes the same things would be said right after each other but maybe this is because it's not expected to be read always beginning to end.

At any rate, Carl takes something that might seem like a dry topic and kept it rich and alive and kept a good neutral tone through all the issues that might be controversial. Now, he needs to write some baseball history books.

[Adam Minter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best and essential history of the US scrap recycling industry. Zimring's research is deep and impeccable, revealing levels of statistical data that I frankly didn't think or know were even available. The early chapters, in particular, are extremely readable and enjoyable. I think, like anyone who writes about the scrap industry, Zimring found the 1970s onward far less interesting and engaging. Still, if you are at all interested in a history of the US scrap industry, this is the first place to stop.