How Old Technologies Became Sustainable An Introduction
Helmuth TrischlerWhy bring the story of cycling and recycling together in one frame to understand and analyze how history can help us move toward more sustainable societies? Do the histories of commuting by city bikes and recycling of used bottles have anything to do with each other in the transition to sustainability? On the surface, the idea of combining the history of waste treatment and recycling with the history of cycling and mobility seems like a bold undertaking. Today's discussions about sustainable technologies tend to focus on fi nding new solutions to pressing environmental challenges. Th e belief and hope that technological innovations will off er an escape route from impending ecological collapse is as pervasive as it is appealing. Th e belief in "green tech, " for example, promises to avoid back-to-nature traditions, which some environmental activists have embraced as sound and sustainable, but is ridiculed by their opponents as sentimental and untenable. In this volume, however, we examine alternative debates. Our Re/cycling concentrates on the notion of transitioning to a more sustainable future by resurrecting older technologies for a new purpose. We explore the intriguing histories of two technologies that were advanced almost fi ft y years ago as important tools for a more sustainable future: cycling and recycling. As we argue, the two technologies have more than merely etymological similarities. From the traditional viewpoint of the history of technology, waste treatment and bicycle production seem to have little in common. When approaching the same subjects from the perspective of consumers of goods and users of technology, however, we fi nd that they are interrelated-certainly in practice, if not in theory. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, environmental activists mobilized older rather than newer technologies as political tools to save the planet. At the time, the revival represented a deliberate act of resistance to the politics of economic growth. Consumer activists demanded that glass bottles be returned to manufacturers. Cargo bikes were appropriated as an alternative to automobiles. Windmills were invested with the hope that they would one day replace nuclear power plants. Once ridiculed as hopelessly outdated, old technologies
