A lot of the palaver over industrial waste overlooks one thing. Waste from any industry is not created in a vacuum of responsibility. There was a plant near where I grew up that produced insulation for home building from the abandoned heaps of slag left in the area since the days of the iron smelters. It was called rock-wool and resembled in form the fiberglass insulation we see today. They had a very noxious stack smoke and were eventually asked to leave the area. My point is the demand for new homes, maybe even the home you live in if it was built in the late 40s, created the rock-wool, and with it the waste stream from that plant. Our grandparents created the waste.
That is not to absolve a manufacturer of the responsibility of providing a clean and safe work environment and from having processes that are environmentally friendly. I just want to make sure that there is proper responsibility placed on all responsible parties.
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