{"product_id":"recycling-isbn-9780262537827","title":"Recycling","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn overview of recycling as an activity and a process, following different materials through the waste stream.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIs there a point to recycling? Is recycling even good for the environment? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Finn Arne Jørgensen answers (drumroll, please): it depends. From a technical point of view, recycling is a series of processes—collecting, sorting, processing, manufacturing. Recycling also has a cultural component; at its core, recycling is about transformation and value, turning material waste into something useful—plastic bags into patio furniture, plastic bottles into T-shirts. Jørgensen offers an accessible and engaging overview of recycling as an activity and as a process at the intersection of the material and the ideological.\u003cbr\u003eJørgensen follows a series of materials as they move back and forth between producer and consumer, continually transforming in form and value, in a never-ceasing journey toward becoming waste. He considers organic waste and cultural contamination; the history of recyclable writing surfaces from papyrus to newsprint; discarded clothing as it moves from the Global North to the Global South; the shifting fate of glass bottles; the efficiency of aluminum recycling; the many types of plastic and the difficulties of informed consumer choice; e-waste and technological obsolescence; and industrial waste. Finally, re-asking the question posed by John Tierney in an infamous 1996 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e article, “is recycling garbage?” Jørgensen argues that recycling is necessary—as both symbolic action and physical activity that has a tangible effect on the real world.Finn Arne Jørgensen is Professor of Environmental History at the University of Stavanger, Norway.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302317379813,"sku":"NP9780262537827","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262537827.jpg?v=1767735533","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/recycling-isbn-9780262537827","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}