title: Recycling in America: A Reference Handbook, 2nd Edition (Contemporary World Issues)
author: Debra Kimball Strong
description: Part of the publisher's Contemporary World Issues series, this volume provides updated information on regulations, organizations and agencies, and resources, now including online ones. There is also new data on the technology of recycling different materials. Look here for a clear explanation of what all those little codes on the bottom of plastic containers stand for. <i></i>
zlib_text: 14.1
  14
  Materials Recycling*
  Susan E. Selke, Ph.D.
  School of Packaging
  Michigan State University
  East Lansing, Michigan
  14.1 Introduction
  Recycling of materials has an extremely long history in the United
  States and all over the world. Whenever raw materials were scarce or
  expensive, it was common sense to use the materials already on hand
  as many times as possible. Clothes, for example, were handed down
  from one family member to another, dresses became aprons, scraps of
  fabric became quilts, cloth too worn to be used in clothing became a
  rag rug, or, in a complete change of identity, paper. During World War
  II, recycling was essential to the war effort. After that time, however,
  in the United States, increased afﬂuence led to a large decline in recy-
  cling, as the U.S. became characterized as a “throw-away society.”
  Glimmerings of increased interest in conservation and recycling
  emerged around 1970, with the ﬁrst Earth Day signaling a renewed
  interest in environmental issues. Concern 