Natural Capitalism—Chapter 3: Waste Not

This report chapter examines the 'industrial metabolism' of the United States, arguing that the current industrial system is characterized by massive waste of natural resources, human potential, and financial capital. It contends that conventional economic measures like GDP are misleading because they count the costs of waste and social decay as economic growth, masking a decline in actual quality of life and the depletion of natural capital.

• The industrial system operates as a linear process that extracts high-quality natural capital and returns it as waste, unlike biological systems which rely on continual feedback loops and recycling of elements like carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen.
• Industrial production generates vast amounts of 'hidden' waste, often referred to in Germany as the 'ecological rucksack.' For example, producing a semiconductor chip generates waste over 100,000 times its own weight, and a laptop computer generates waste close to 4,000 times its weight.
• The United States generates an immense volume of annual waste, exceeding 50 trillion pounds excluding wastewater, and 250 trillion pounds when wastewater is included. Less than 2 percent of this total waste stream is recycled.
• The report identifies a systemic 'waste of people,' noting that nearly one billion people globally (approximately 30 percent of the labor force) are unable to work or are underemployed. In the US, this manifests as a high number of 'working poor' and a massive penal system, with nearly 5 million men awaiting trial, in prison, on probation, or on parole.
• The document argues that the US economy wastes at least $2 trillion annually on activities that provide no value to the buyer. This includes $150 billion in highway accidents, $100 billion in highway congestion lost productivity, and $250 billion in unnecessary medical overhead from the insurance system.
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is criticized as a flawed measure of progress because it records all expenditures—including those resulting from crime, pollution, and environmental cleanup—as economic gain, thereby masking the breakdown of social and natural systems.

APA

RMI (n.d.). Natural Capitalism—Chapter 3: Waste Not. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NCchapter3.pdf

Chicago

RMI. Natural Capitalism—Chapter 3: Waste Not. n.d. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NCchapter3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Natural Capitalism—Chapter 3: Waste Not |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NCchapter3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmindnatural, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Natural Capitalism—Chapter 3: Waste Not}}, institution = {RMI}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NCchapter3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }