I've been reading about how the Romans recycled building materials from demolished structures, and it's making me rethink whether we're actually better at resource management than ancient societies. They had no concept of sustainability, yet they reused marble and bricks on a massive scale out of pure pragmatism. Our recycling rates for construction waste are still below 70% in most countries, so is that progress or just better bookkeeping? I don't think we can claim moral superiority when the Colosseum's stone ended up in later buildings and we still send tons of concrete to landfills.