And cities were running out of landfill space and seeking a home for their trash. So firms like Raytheon invented garbage to energy systems. They would burn garbage and make steam, or grind it into fuel pellets. Pull out scrap metal that would jam the works, and call it recycling. They used technology designed to sort wheat from chaff.
Garbage then becomes a good thing a fuel.
Funny how fast the packaging industry jumped on the bandwagon. Public works directors, usually engineers, liked it because they could get rid of their trash without asking people to change their behavior. Cities bought it especially Northeast cities with the greatest landfill problems. The Solid Waste Management Board funded its first feasibility study for a plant to be built in Healdsburg, supplied by garbage from Mendocino, Solano, Marin and Napa Counties to provide electricity for Healdsburg homes. If the city didn t have enough garbage, it had to pay anyway.