Although recycling may seem like a modern concept introduced with the environmental movement of the 1970’s, it’s actually been around for thousands of years
Prior to the Industrial Age, a company couldn’t make goods quickly or cheaply, so virtually everyone practiced recycling in some form.
However, large scale recycling programs were very rare – households predominantly practiced recycling.
The mass production of the Industrial Age is the very reason we must worry about large scale recycling. When products can be produced and purchased cheaply, it often seems to make sense to simply throw away old items and purchase new ones. However, this culture of “disposable” goods created several environmental problems. This continues to be a problem today.