Dumping Concrete: a law of capitalism In action – a local example

Thanks to GossipsOfRivertown for the image.

The May 3rd post “Unbelievable” on our favorite local blog GossipsOfRivertown.blogspot.com caught our attention. This F.H.Stickles concrete truck dumping waste concrete next to a stream running into the Hudson River is a local demonstration of one of the central laws of capitalism.

For more pictures of this incident go here.

Every company seeks to get someone else to pay for as many of its costs of doing business as possible. The laws of capitalism require this. If all of Stickles’ competitors are similarly avoiding the costs of disposing of their waste concrete they must do likewise. Otherwise their cost of doing business would be higher. In the short term their profits will be lower. In the longer term they will be forced out of business because they will have to charge higher prices. This is so regardless of the moral values or sense of community of the owners of F.H.Stickles. This how capitalism works.

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Concrete Dumping – more than a local Hudson nuisance

Thanks to GossipsOfRivertown for the image.

Carole Osterink reported in her post “Unbelievable” on May 3rd about the dumping of waste concrete by F.H.Stickles Concrete on a site off north 2nd Street adjacent to a small stream that drains into the Hudson River perhaps a hundred yards away. 

This practice is in violation of state and Federal regulations of concrete washouts of concrete trucks and other equipment used to deliver concrete at constructions sites. A quick internet search found EPA guidelines as well as NYS regulations about the handling of this hazardous waste.

Here is more from engineers in Wisconsin: “Why concrete washout is harmful to the environment

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