Cradle to Cradle Ch. 2

Cradle to Cradle Ch. 2

Why Being “Less Bad” Is No Good

-Many people “predicted” the result of the industrial revolution would end bad, when everyone else had hopes and excitement for the future.  These individuals were almost like outcasts because of their “negativity”.

-Over time of people continuing to push for less environmental damage, changes were gradually made, like the banning of DDT, but changes are still young.

-In 1998 the message from William Rathje was to consume less instead of trying to recycle more.

-A new change was the move to “eco-efficiency” which means “to do more with less” and using fewer resources, and polluting less.  This lead to the popular phrase: reduce, reuse, recycle.

-Many busyness companies have adopted these eco-efficiency phrases, and have reduced emissions greatly, but…

The Four R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle- and Regulate

-“Eco-efficiency” is to slow down destruction not stop it, like a slow death.

-Waste removal has been made safer and safer through the years, but the word “safer” means that it is still harmful.

-Even reusing waste to fertilize the ground will hurt environments (like dioxins, heavy metals, and antibiotics) if the waste is not completely biodegradable, making landfills a better choice, and landfills are not a good choice.

-“Down Cycling” is when a material is “recycled”, but because of the inability to separate components, like paint from a car’s steel, losses its pure state and becomes weaker until all usefulness is lost.

-If a material is down cycled, but still need better quality a chemical additive will be added, making this “eco-friendly” recycling less friendly.

-Industries are under threat of punishment under regulations, but rarely rewarded for trying to create a deeper and more creative way to respond to the problem.

-Good design (solve problem) does not require regulations (slow problem).

Efficient- at What?

-Efficiency as a good thing is relevant to the issue.  Efficient food is no fun, and efficient polluting is hard to detect.

-“Less bad” is efficient, but just an efficiently slower death.