Materials and the Global Environment: Waste Mining in the 21st Century

Abstract

Sustainability is supposed to be the watchword of the coming century. Kenneth Boulding characterized the economic system of the 19th century as a “cowboy economy,” meaning that resources were essentially not a limiting factor. In contrast, he noted that in the future we must prepare to live in a “spaceship economy,” adopting Barbara Ward's famous metaphor of “Spaceship Earth.” In a spaceship, all materials must be recycled (or discarded into space).