Andrew Reed and Pierre Desrochers

The Invisible Green Hand

Key points

“The partial waste (incomplete usage) of natural raw materials used in the manufacturing process represent(s) a cost to the firm.”“Infringing on the property rights of other when discarding waste could incur fines, cutting directly into a firm’s profitability.”

Civil actions were also available to harmed parties.

Industrial processes

• Since the early days of large scale manufacturing, firms sought uses for byproducts.

• Important examples – Coal Tar– Animal by-products

Common Law Property Doctrines

• Trespass: Actual intrusions

• Nuisance: Intangible intrusions

Kalundborg

• Privately arranged network of firms that would “feed” on each others in this Danish industrial town

• But experts, it was thought, could do better: Imagine what a team of designers would come up with if they were to start from scratch, locating and specifying industries that had potentially synergistic and symbiotic relationships. (Paul Hawkin)

Finally

• Regulation displaces common law solutions, and, lacking the motivation or context for private actions to protect rights, the system of checks and balances erodes.