Creating the Green Economy

The constant economic news makes it sound like everything is coming to a screeching halt when it comes to the engine of business. On the contrary, the coming green economy will turn out to be far larger than we ever expected.

On the face of it we are now seeing a scaling back of the kind of wasteful and over consumptive economy based on the availability of ever-growing supplies of cheap energy. Despite the recent plunge in oil prices, over the next years and decades to come we will see dramatic increases in these costs.

So the question before us is how do we create an economy which does not require Americans to purchase ever growing quantities of unnecessary and wasteful items. The answer is to support and enhance those industries which are designed to recycle materials and extend the life of the things we use. It will require and shift from a "throwaway" society to a "sustainable" society.

For example, we can increase the reuse of many items. Businesses and industries that repair and help us to reuse items. We need to reclaim the lost art of fixing things. Many items just require a bit of effort to make them usable once again.

We need to rebuild, refurbish, refinish and renovate our homes, offices, public buildings, machines, tools and furniture in ways that increase their lifespan, reduce their energy use and improve their efficiencies

Trade and bartering systems can be encouraged to allow us to resell items we have finished with, but are still valuable to others

We need to create a domestic recycling industry. We must not be dependent on countries such as China to buy our used paper, glass,aluminum and cardboard. We need to support the development of these industries right here in the United States.

As part of our move to grow as much of our own food locally, we must support the creation of local sources of organic compost while diverting all that material from our already over burdened landfills.

Taken together, these industries have the potential to create millions of home grown jobs while reducing our consumption of raw materials all at the same time.