I have published many articles arguing that industrial and inter-firm recycling was widespread before 1900 and overwhelmingly the result of market forces. Treating my papers to 2005, Frank Boons (2008) challenges those conclusions. He also criticizes me for neglecting structural, cultural, and...

In 2008 I published a critique of Pierre Desrochers‘ early work on industrial by-product exchanges; Desrochers has now written a reply, and this is my rejoinder. Studying by-product exchanges among firms in relation to the reduction of ecological impact of economic activities is not served by...

This piece is a response to Pierre Desrochers’ criticism of an article by me. This response challenges Desrochers’ argument that market forces compelled nineteenth- and early twentieth-century manufacturers to recycle, voluntarily, the vast majority of their wastes. I argue that Desrochers...