Rethinking waste within business history: A transnational perspective on waste recycling in World War II
本文通过二战期间欧洲、亚洲和北美的废弃物回收案例，从长期视角分析废弃物回收业的结构、市场和参与者，提出废弃物商业的四个基本特征，对商业史学者和废弃物管理研究者有参考价值。
Waste and its reuse have constituted an important field of economic activity for most of human history, including modern times. While the collected articles of this special issue exemplify the significance that waste salvage had in mobilising resources in Europe, Asia, and North America in World War II, this introduction situates these cases in a long-term perspective. It explores the continuities and ruptures inside the structures, markets, and actors of the salvage business from late nineteenth century waste reclamation, including the sanitary era of municipal waste disposal, to the more recent era of ‘green’ recycling. It argues that we need to rethink waste’s role within business history by delineating four basic characteristics of the waste business: the moral economies that govern wasting and reusing; the informality of the trade and its operations; the trans-sectorality of the waste streams; and the reverse logistics of the waste salvage trade.