Introduction
In today’s world, wealth is often measured by material possessions: larger homes, newer vehicles, constant upgrades to technology, and closets full of fast fashion. This pattern of equating success with consumption has deep roots in history and continues to shape our environmental challenges. While rising incomes bring undeniable benefits such as better access to education, healthcare, and security, they also correlate strongly with one troubling trend: increased waste.
This blog explores the historical and modern evidence linking higher incomes to waste accumulation, using the Roman Empire and Edmonton’s 1980s economic boom as examples. It will then present data on the relationship between income and waste globally, and argue for a new vision of wealth, one grounded not in material accumulation, but in good health, resilient food systems, strong communities, and a sustainable environment.
Wealth and Waste in the Roman Empire
The Roman Empire, one of the most influential civilizations in history, provides an early case study of how wealth and waste are intertwined. As Rome expanded across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, it brought with it advanced infrastructure, bustling trade, and a booming population. These hallmarks of prosperity created massive flows of goods, food, and materials. They also left behind mountains of waste.
One of the most striking examples is Monte Testaccio, an artificial mound in Rome composed entirely of broken amphorae, ceramic vessels used to transport olive oil. Archaeologists estimate that the site contains the remains of over 50 million amphorae, discarded between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE. Instead of recycling or repairing these vessels, they were systematically broken and piled into a landfill that eventually rose 35 meters high. This mountain of waste stands as a reminder that even in antiquity, economic prosperity often meant disposable consumption.
The Romans also left behind other waste legacies. Lead pollution from smelting and plumbing has been detected in Greenland’s ice cores, showing that the empire’s industrial activities affected regions thousands of kilometers away. Roman cities dealt with trash, sewage, and the detritus of luxury goods in ways that were sometimes advanced (public baths and sewers) but often limited. Despite their wealth, Rome’s prosperity carried ecological costs that would echo long after its decline.
Edmonton’s 1980s Boom and the Clover Bar Landfill
Fast forward nearly two millennia, and Edmonton, Alberta provides another example of wealth fueling waste. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Edmonton experienced an oil-driven economic boom. With higher incomes came rapid population growth, suburban expansion, and rising consumerism. More shopping malls, more packaged goods, and more single-use items became everyday symbols of prosperity.
This surge in consumption placed immense pressure on Edmonton’s waste management system. By 1988, the Clover Bar landfill, opened in 1975 as the city’s main dumping ground, was nearing capacity. The landfill, located along the North Saskatchewan River, became a symbol of how material wealth translated directly into waste accumulation. Mountains of trash, much of it from households benefiting from the oil boom, rose as visible reminders of consumption culture.
Edmonton’s response, however, showed how wealth and resources can be redirected toward innovation. In 1988, the city introduced curbside recycling programs, among the first in Canada. Later, the Clover Bar landfill was fitted with methane capture technology, turning waste gas into electricity to power thousands of homes. By the 2000s, Edmonton was diverting more than half of its household waste away from landfills, through recycling and large-scale composting facilities.
Yet the lesson remains clear: the city’s waste crisis was born from a period of economic wealth. Prosperity without foresight led to material excess, and only afterward did systemic solutions emerge.
The Global Correlation Between Income and Waste
The connection between wealth and waste is not limited to Rome or Edmonton. Around the world, research consistently shows that higher income levels are linked to higher rates of municipal solid waste generation.
A 2016 study in the Journal of Cleaner Production examined waste generation across countries and found a strong positive correlation between GDP per capita and municipal solid waste per person. Simply put: as people earn more, they consume more, and they discard more.
This correlation holds across regions. For example, in the United States, where incomes are higher than the global average, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that the average person produces about 2 kilograms of waste per day,roughly double the global average. In contrast, low-income countries tend to generate less waste per person, though their waste management systems are often less developed.
At a city level, research on “urban scaling laws” demonstrates that as cities grow wealthier, their waste generation increases in predictable patterns. Without strong policies, urban prosperity tends to magnify resource use and waste output.
However, there is evidence that very high-income regions with robust policies can begin to “decouple” economic growth from waste growth. For example, some European countries with high GDP per capita have stabilized or even reduced waste per person through aggressive recycling targets, extended producer responsibility programs, and cultural shifts in consumption. This suggests that wealth need not inevitably produce waste, but it requires intentional design.
The Hidden Costs of Material Wealth
The waste generated by wealth-driven consumption has far-reaching consequences. Landfills are not merely neutral storage spaces; they are sources of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. They leach toxic chemicals into soil and groundwater. They consume land that could otherwise support ecosystems or communities.
Waste also represents squandered resources. The energy, water, and raw materials embedded in consumer products are lost when those products are discarded. A fast-fashion garment worn only a few times before disposal represents not only textile waste but also the wasted cotton, dyes, labor, and transport emissions that produced it.
Moreover, the health costs of waste are unevenly distributed. Communities near landfills, incinerators, and polluting industries often bear the brunt of respiratory illnesses, contaminated water, and degraded living conditions. Globally, the United Nations has linked unsustainable consumption patterns to climate change, biodiversity loss, and public health crises.
The irony is stark: material wealth intended to improve quality of life often undermines it in the long run.
Redefining Wealth: From Material Accumulation to Sustainable Prosperity
If higher incomes tend to drive waste, then a central question emerges: how do we redefine wealth so that prosperity no longer equates to environmental harm?
A new vision of wealth must shift from material accumulation toward non-material sources of well-being. These include:
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Good Health: True prosperity is not measured by the number of possessions but by physical and mental wellness. Public health investments, access to healthcare, clean air, and safe living environments all represent wealth that does not generate mountains of waste.
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Healthy Food Systems: Industrial agriculture and heavily packaged foods generate enormous waste. By investing in local, regenerative, and seasonal food systems, societies can create wealth in the form of nutrition, soil health, and community resilience. Farmers’ markets, community gardens, and urban agriculture enrich lives without filling landfills.
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Strong Communities: Wealth can also be found in cultural richness, education, and social connections. Shared resources, cooperative enterprises, and public spaces foster prosperity without excessive consumption.
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Environmental Integrity: Clean rivers, protected forests, and thriving biodiversity are forms of wealth often overlooked by economic metrics. Yet they provide ecosystem services essential to human survival—pollination, water purification, carbon sequestration—that no material goods can replace.
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Time and Wellbeing: Societies that prioritize shorter workweeks, leisure, and balance often find that well-being improves even as material consumption declines. Time wealth can be as valuable as financial wealth.
Pathways to Shifting Wealth
Making this shift requires coordinated action at multiple levels.
Individuals can choose durability over disposability, prioritize experiences over things, and support local food and repair systems. Cultural change often starts with personal choices that ripple outward.
Businesses can lead by designing products for longevity, offering repair services, and adopting circular economy principles. Extended producer responsibility ensures that companies remain accountable for the lifecycle of their products.
Governments play a crucial role in reshaping incentives. Landfill taxes, waste diversion targets, bans on single-use plastics, and subsidies for renewable energy or regenerative agriculture help align wealth with sustainability.
Education and storytelling are equally important. Highlighting alternative definitions of wealth, like Edmonton’s innovative waste-to-energy systems or Rome’s lessons on unsustainable growth, helps shift cultural values.
Conclusion
From the amphorae of ancient Rome to the overflowing Clover Bar landfill of 1980s Edmonton, history shows that material wealth has long been tied to waste. As incomes rise, so too does consumption, and with it, the burdens placed on ecosystems and future generations. Yet the story does not end there. Edmonton’s innovations in recycling and landfill gas capture, Europe’s progress in decoupling growth from waste, and the global rise of sustainable food and wellness movements point to a hopeful direction.
The challenge before us is not to eliminate wealth, but to redefine it. Instead of measuring prosperity by possessions destined for landfills, we can measure it by the health of our bodies, the resilience of our food systems, the strength of our communities, and the integrity of our natural world. This is the new wealth, a wealth that sustains rather than squanders, that heals rather than harms.
Ready to Rethink Wealth and Waste?
If this blog sparked new ideas about the connection between prosperity and sustainability, there’s more to explore. Dive deeper into topics that will help you reduce waste and live a truly richer life, one rooted in health, community, and connection with the planet.
In reimagining what it means to be wealthy, we can transform waste from an inevitable byproduct of prosperity into a problem of the past.
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Drowning in Stuff: How Overproduction Is Overwhelming Our Recycling Systems – Understand the hidden pressures of overproduction on our recycling systems and how to make smarter consumption choices.
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Together, we can shift wealth away from material excess and toward what really matters: health, resilience, and a sustainable future.