Re: Cradle To Cradle by William McDonough
This is a direct response to the chapter Waste Equals Food in McDonough’s book Cradle To Cradle. McDonough’s concept of “waste equals food” basically means that it is possible to design industrial systems and processes so that the products manufactured are completely recyclable and that all the by-products of the production process are usable in the creation of other products. Ideally, in such a system, garbage and pollution would not exist.
Wired writes:
Herein lies the Big McDonough Idea: “The materials go back to soils safely, or they go back to industry. That’s it. That’s the new paradigm.”
I find these things really important to talk about. The problems with combining different kinds of materials, i.e., disposable/non-disposable, in one product is indeed a pressing issue. Still, somehow McDonough makes it all sound so easy - “too good to be true”, so to speak. As somebody pointed out in class: if the concept of full recycling is so easy and advantageous, why haven’t more companies and manufacturers actually implemented it yet? I guess the answer is, it takes time to (as Swedes say) “teach an old dog to sit“.
As an human-computer interface designer, I quickly learned that usability is considered a “luxury”. It is something companies invest in when they have the time and money to do so. Well, either that, or when they are really desperate. Maybe it’s the same with recycling and green thinking? Why change a seemingly well-functioning process unless somebody or something forces you to change it?
Weak incentives, maybe that’s what it is all about.