A review of the recycling trade literature in the first days of 1990 indicates that all the pundits, including this one, severely missed the mark when they predicted where recycling would go in the 1990s. For example, Lanny Hickman, then the executive director of what is now the Solid Waste Association of North America (Silver Spring, Maryland), predicted that recycling would never be a "broad national success." In truth, by the mid-1990s, recycling was seen as one of the environment's great success stories. In a second example, Allen Moore, president of the National Solid Wastes Management Association (Washington), concluded that in terms of recyclable material use, "consumer buying habits will change, especially in areas that mandate source separation." Unfortunately, such action did not occur. Because the field is changing so fast and inexplicably, readers should be wary this month of listening to "predictions for the new decade."
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