| We promote and practice the three R's - "reduce, | | | | Cradle-to-cradle recycling is the appropriation of |
| reuse, recycle" to reduce the negative impact of | | | | this very natural and highly efficient concept of |
| our profligate lifestyle and often unnecessary | | | | sustainability into our manufacturing methods right |
| products on the environment, and then we step | | | | at the very beginning of the process - in the |
| back, satisfied in the thought that when we | | | | design or conceptualization of the finished product. |
| recycle we're making the right choice. And why | | | | Unusable excess is a result of inadequate |
| not? We've just helped reduce the volume of | | | | conceptualization. Architects, designers, and |
| solid waste that's going to be deposited in our | | | | engineers will have to think of the eventual |
| landfills (or worse, in the oceans), we've done a | | | | handling of their products from the very beginning, |
| fantastic job in helping save the environment. | | | | how these gadgets (with ALL of their parts) can |
| But, are we really choosing the best option when | | | | be reused or reintroduced into the production |
| we recycle? | | | | cycle as "technical nutrients" or rapidly |
| In 2002, William McDonough and Michael Braungart | | | | biodegraded and returned safely to the earth. |
| published a book called "Cradle to Cradle: | | | | None wasted, every part reusable or recyclable - |
| Remaking The Way We Make Things." In this | | | | that is the underlying idea of cradle-to-cradle |
| visionary book, they point out that recycling, as it | | | | recycling. |
| is done today, is actually "downcycling" or "cradle | | | | A lady who goes to the market chooses |
| to grave" recycling. We craft floating buoys from | | | | between plastic bags or paper bags for her |
| styrofoam or produce news print out of white | | | | groceries. A town council in Germany debates if |
| paper. The new products we create out of used | | | | their town should keep using coal or use palm oil |
| materials are actually lesser in quality to the | | | | for electricity generation. In our daily lives, we |
| original (due to materials degradation or | | | | often get trapped into "lesser of two evils" type |
| contamination) or utilize just a fraction of it (the | | | | of decisions. Plastic will remain for thousands of |
| remainder ending up in the dump sites as toxic | | | | years and coal is the most polluting of all the fuels |
| waste). | | | | we use. Conversely, paper production kills rain |
| Differentiate this with the way nature disposes of | | | | forests, and palm oil production threatens |
| its waste. When a tree creates a thousand | | | | extinction to orangutans. Lesser evils. Since the |
| flowers to reproduce or replicate itself, it is highly | | | | dawn of the industrial era, we've been boxed into |
| likely that only one of those blooms will actually | | | | this notion of destructive choices. |
| become a new tree. But, we don't find the 999 | | | | Cradle-to-cradle recycling debunks this very notion |
| other blooms wasted since all these fall down to | | | | of limited choices. When sustainability is introduced |
| the earth as nutrients to help begin the tree's | | | | and incorporated in the very design of the |
| next reproduction cycle. In nature, there is no | | | | product, the options become numerous for us. |
| such thing as waste. Waste equals food, | | | | The authors call cradle to cradle recycling as the |
| everything goes back to the earth as fertilizer. | | | | "next industrial revolution" and this "thinking outside |
| This is known as sustainability, every part | | | | of the box" may just be the solution we all need |
| contributes to "sustain" the cycle and the process | | | | to address the world's waste problems. |
| is replicated unendingly without any unusable | | | | Paper bag or plastic bag? Why not an "edible bag? |
| waste. | | | | |