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David Conner
Center for Rural Studies
207 Morrill Hall, UVM
Burlington, VT 05405
(802) 656-3021
FAX: (802) 656-0776
dconner@zoo.uvm.edu
On Mon, 31 Mar 1997, Frederick R. Magdoff wrote:
> Dear All,
> Not sure if this was supposed to be satire or not, but some of
> the statements are hard to believe-
> ****"But ever since we put a tree on our package and a banner reading,
> 'Made From At Least Five Percent Recycled Post-Consumer Waste,' our
> sales have gone through the roof. We can barely cut down trees fast
> enough to meet the demand. I guess the bottom line is, for me, recycling
> is all about green."
> ****Others are taking an even more active role. "We've printed and
> distributed over four million pamphlets to raise awareness about the
> importance of recycling," said Lori Herbst, founder of San Francisco's
> RecycleUSA! "I can't believe how successful the pamphlets have been. The
> city's drains are literally clogged with them."
>
> So the answer is to actually convince people to buy your product so that
> you can use natural resources faster OR add to the pollution problem with
> material trying to tell people to recycle?
>
> Seems to me that a lot more would be accomplished if we didn't have a
> system that promotes continually expanded markets and therefore spends an
> obscene amount of money convincing us that things we really don't
> need are actually necessities.
>
> FRED
>