Western European Recycling in a Long-term Perspective

Scholarship on the history of material flows stresses the fundamental changes in the recycling of materials between the nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century and points to different caesuras during this period. Industrialization and urban sanitation constituted a major turning point for recycling followed by another connected to the advent of the mass consumer society. Seen in a long-term perspective, however, the picture seems more complex. There were significant changes, but there are also indications of evolving and persisting recycling systems. Mainly dealing with urban settings, the article argues that pre-industrial forms persisted within the field of “modern” recycling alongside the ruptures that can be detected for material flows and recycling systems since the end of the nineteenth century.