ABSTRACT
Although economic growth is not a term that the environmental historian uses with any affection, since he is dealing with the adverse consequences of growth, he can scarcely avoid it altogether. Any lessening of environmental evils contributes to psychic welfare, and reduction of waste adds to material income and promotes growth, other things being equal. An enquiry into waste and its prevention is therefore an enquiry into growth at one remove. So far, recycling and the use of byproducts have been considered as antidotes to waste of materials. But there are other ways of economising and they will be examined briefly in this chapter before concluding with some discussion of economic growth, past and prospective, true and false.
