The Wasp — September 13, 1879 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Jags, Cabs, and Bottles!" — Waste and Urban Recycling This satirical piece attacks the inefficiency of San Francisco's waste management and the exploitative recycling economy. The main article critiques how politicians and businessmen profit from what should be discarded, particularly bottles purchased from the poor at artificially low prices. The cartoons illustrate street children collecting bottles and rags for pittance—depicting the desperation of urban poverty. The satire targets the hypocrisy: while wealthy men profit substantially from this "waste," working-class children and Chinese laborers earn subsistence wages. The text sarcastically praises those who "developed a profitable application of their own preference"—meaning the bottle dealers—exposing how poverty becomes monetized by the indifferent rich.