Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
This history of waste also re
ects the metabolism of societies and the lineari-
zation of material
ows:
industrialization translated into an increasing use of
resources,
rst processed by industries and then consumed by urbanites. Each of
these steps produced an array of waste materials, until their
nal disposal. However,
during the
rst industrial age, the absence of synthetic fertilizers and a lack of
knowledge of fossil fertilizers associated with certain industrial processes, such as
the manufacture of paper, candles, dyes, etc., contributed to limiting waste pro-
duction. At the time, the metabolism of societies was partially closed, in view of the
agricultural and industrial importance of most urban, even industrial, by-products.
As soon as industry and agriculture had the means to do without these by-products,
they stopped using them. Thus it was only during the second industrial revolution
that the opening of the bio-geochemical cycles became widespread and that waste
had to be accepted as consubstantial with the rise in the standard of living and
development. The environmental crisis of 1960
1970, and later, the depletion of the
ozone layer, climatic change and the emergence of the concept of sustainable
development led to a renewed consideration of waste. Waste became the symbol of
the pernicious effects of a consumer society. Despite this new view of waste, the
management of it has not considerably improved, especially since the amount of
waste continues to grow in the South.
The issue of waste is now part of a larger discourse, that of non-renewable
resources and the uniqueness of our planet. It is no longer enough to recycle or to
recover excreta simply to limit the quantity of
-
nal waste. What matters now is to
close the loops and, through recycling and recovery, to limit the extraction of
resources at the source. Such a project, driven by industrial ecology and territorial
ecology, will succeed only if the levels of consumption fall. It will require a
profound reform in society and its way of viewing its waste.
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