Within the next couple of years, a new profession will emerge in North America -- the recycling engineer.

The job won't be anything like it is today. "Recycling," to too many people, means throwing things away. Today's recycling engineer figures out the cheapest way of getting garbage to the landfill.

Tomorrow, it'll be different, as we start to realize how valuable our "garbage" can be. The recycling engineer will learn the ins and outs of a business or industrial operation, determine the value of waste produced (because all waste is valuable to someone), and figure out the most profitable way of using it.

After all, a lot of hat goes into landfills isn't really garbage at all. In Ottawa, for example, garbage workers bid bucks to work certain routes. They know that in the garbage piles, they'll find televisions and VCRs that only need a fuse replaced or a new plug that the former owners were too lazy to repair.

Which is, perhaps, the crux of our current problem of waste production -- we're too lazy, as a society, to think up new uses for an item, or new ways of using the materials it contains.

Some people are even too lazy to re-use materials, even though they may be of higher quality than what's on the market now.

Take lumber, for example. Older building were constructed using boards from first-growth trees -- the straightest and strongest there is. If you can find a piece of first-growth lumber in a building supply yard, it'll cost you five times as much as a regular hunk of wood.

When a building is being demolished, or a house renovated, I'll often be called in to "rescue" materials and components, including lumber.

At our yard, we pull all the nails, then run boards through a milling machine. Our customers tell us that when that wood is sanded smooth and varnished, it looks like a million dollars.

It's hard to find the same quality in a lumber yard. Yet, building owners and householders have thrown away fine materials for years.

The same goes for almost any industrial process -- more is thrown away during manufacture than the product contains. The waste goes to landfills. Industry needs someone to tell them how to make a profit from that waste.

While there isn't the same economic motivation for homeowners, they can still gather and sort their disposables and ensure they're recycled. Newspapers, bottles, plastics and tin cans should all be sent to collection centers.

As for scrap building materials, we'll be glad to haul yours away for a small fee. We'll bring the materials to our yard, clean them and restore them if needed.

We make our money by selling these restored and reusable materials to contractors and homeowners who are looking for affordable lumber or authentic replacements.

If Happy Harry's can do this with building materials, what's stopping other industries from doing the same with their waste?