10 Ways the Free Market Protects the Environment
Trash reduction can also be better managed by relying on markets, because by assigning value to much of the detritus, markets enable us to separate valuable waste from actual trash. (Believe it or not, a large proportion of what is cast away by some is of real value to others.) People acting in private markets are given incentive to innovate when dealing with trash for economic as well as health and aesthetic reasons. By sorting “trash” for whatever may have value (something that is done repeatedly in many of the poorer and less well-developed countries), and by using modern techniques (including clean incineration, an innovation used in Switzerland and other countries but not yet accepted in the United States) people can safely dispose of the actual trash. At the same time, they will be reducing the load on land-fills, incidentally reaping substantial profits in the process.
