Today's industrial economies were founded on the use of vast quantities of materials and energy, and the economic health of nations has often been equated with the amount they consumed. The amount of materials that originally enters an economy tells nothing about the material's eventual fate or its contribution to human well-being. It tells a good deal, however, about the damage the economy inflicts upon the environment. The devastation wrought by economic production is closely related to the amount of materials consumed. Discussed in this booklet are the causes of waste problems and attempts of people around the world to find alternative solutions to waste problems. Chapters are: (1) "Materials and the Environment"; (2) "The Mess We Are In"; (3) "Changing Products--and People"; (4) "Pushing the Limits of Recycling"; and (5) "Discarding the Throwaway Society." (KR)