CAPITALIST RECYCLERS

The view that most of us have of Britain's Victorian era is strongly shaped by the dramatic novels of Charles Dickens. Dickens was however a reformer in his day so focused on the worst things in his environment. There is a very interesting article here that shows -- surprisingly -- that the Victorians were in fact great recyclers. But they did it for profit, not under government compulsion. That constitutes pretty powerful evidence that even recycling should be left to the marketplace. Modern-day government recycling programs almost always cost money rather than make money.

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