 The episode was based on a story idea pitched by David X. Cohen , although it was written by John Swartzwelder , who had written many of the Simpsons episodes that have environmental themes . This habit led to him being called the " conscience of the staff " despite being a " self declared anti @-@ environmentalist . " It was because of this that he was given such episodes , because the staff felt that he would give them just the right amount of sarcasm . In the original script for the episode , he described the recycling center as " a couple of hippies surrounded by garbage " . Two alternate original titles for the episode were Cohen 's " Lisa and Burns " and Swartzwelder 's " Burns Goes Broke " . 
