David P. Steiner Quotes
We can turn your bottles back into oil. We can burn it to make energy. Our we can put it in a landfill. There’s a green spectrum. And a cost spectrum. The most green is the most expensive.
Quoted in Forbes, October 4, 2016
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The major reason for not yet harvesting waste is the labor, caital, and energy costs of recycling relative to the value of the resource is too high. Technology improvements and greater shortages continuously change the equation in favor of harvesting more and more resources.
Many argue that they are hardly reflected at all. The reason is the governments pay for much of the real cost and spread the cost over its taxpayers. Some costs are not monetary—premature deaths from pollution or corruption in petroeconomic corrupt states. People just suffer.
His assertion that wind energy is less expensive than the fossil fuel alternative is not accurate if one accounts for the costs on the basis of conventional accounting methods. It was at that time more expensive which is why it’s use was limited. However, the existing methods of accounting did not charge the fossil fuels for the environmental degregation that they cause and the cost to society to overcome these or live with them. More important there is no charge to the cost of fossil fuels for the deleterious health effects that their extraction and use cause. Global warming / climate change is not considered at all in the economic analysis.
When manufacturers (and other businesses) can be convinced that they can make more money by being environmentally responsible, they will voluntarily do so. Instead of regulations or laws mandating Green policies, he suggests that government and science can move industry by arranging the contingencies so that it makes economic sense for the businesses. Things like cap and trade, tax policy, new technology, and pricing can be very productive.
David Paul Steiner is an American lawyer and corporate executive. He served as a member of the board of directors of Vulcan Materials from 2017 to 2019. Steiner was Chief Executive Officer at Waste Management Inc., Director (from 2004-2010) and President (from 2010-2016). He is also a Director at TE Connectivity Ltd., Greater Houston Partnership, Tyco Electronics Corporation and FedEx Corporation, the latter of which he also holds the role of Lead Independent Director.
