2023

Pál, Viktor

Analyses of the Soviet Bloc’s environmental record have often characterized it as “dirty.” While it is true that the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies committed terrible ecological crimes while pursuing extensive and rapid economic growth, Eastern European states also developed and employed complex systems to repair, reuse, and recycle resources. This article traces the gradual change in the professional and political discussions of postindustrial and postconsumer paper recycling in Hungary as recycling transitioned from a technological fix for material shortages into an ideological tool intended to underscore socialism’s theoretical supremacy over capitalism, without actually delivering on that promise.