Cash for Your Trash Scrap Recycling in America

"Long before our growing levels of waste became an environmental concern, recycling was a part of everyday life for many Americans for a variety of reasons. From rural peddlers ... to urban children ..., individuals have been finding ways to reuse discarded materials for hundreds of years. ... Integrating findings from archival, industrial, and demographic records, and 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."--Page 4 of cover