Cradle to Cradle

I just finished reading this book...if I were a product designer I'd now have a much broader perspective when I consider the entire life-cycle of a product.

The authors urge that "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" actually perpetuates a one-way "cradle-to-grave" manufacturing model, dating back to the industrial revolution. Recycling also downcycles our materials, making them less useful over time.

Why not consider a broader life cycle for the products we create (even considering the grave the materials will go to). A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we consider its abundance not wasteful, but safe, beautiful, and highly effective.

Waste equals food. If we look at waste that way, we can create "food" out of it in two ways: Biological nutrients or technical nutrients. We can develop all our products with this in mind. We keep the two types of waste separate for easy processing. "Biological nutrients" are those that can easily reenter the water or soil without depositing toxins and synthetic materials, and "technical nutrients" can be continuously circulated as pure and valuable materials within close-loop industrial cycles.

The end result is that our products/waste are reborn into something else useful and beneficial...cradle to cradle, instead of cradle to grave.