Caught a nice blurb on NPR’s Marketplace this evening in which our trash was being used as an indicator to the “health” of the economy. Kai Ryssdahl remarked that the guy featured in the link actually had a pretty salient formula….but we already knew this right? The thing that got me, was, if we are in an economically barren landscape right now and the amount of refuse we see on a daily basis is already overwhelming, what does the transfer station/ landfill look like in “healthy” economic times. Furthermore, while this formula seems to be effective for determining the so called health of our economy, is health the right word to use in this context? The more we throw away the better our life is? Hmmmm. Here’s the link:
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/tracking-economy-and-gdp-through-trash
Yes, “health” – very interesting commentary, Chandra. It is true that the volume at our transfer stations does indeed go down significantly when we are in recession. We sometimes get excited and want to take credit for our good work, then things recover and get us depressed all over again…