Cradle to Cradle :: the short version

If you’ve read the first chapter of Cradle to Cradle, then you will understand how overwhelmed a person can become with the toxic nature of our society. Almost everything humans create emits toxic VOCs into you and your home before ultimately ending up in our crowded landfills. While it seems that society is in direct conflict with the earth, there is something that can be done to reverse course.

The authors of Cradle to Cradle explain that the goal is to create technical and biological nutrients that never reach a landfill, but are always in reuse. Technical nutrients are those elements such as pure metals or plastics that can be disassembled, melted down and remade into another high quality product. Biological nutrients are those that can be disposed of on the ground or composted to create new soil and biological matter.

While it seems that this is simply an embellished description of recycling, the current manufacturing and recycling systems are failing to provide us with infinitely useful materials. This is because most technical nutrients like metal and plastic are blended or bound together so that they are never pure again.

The steel on a car is covered with paint that, when recycled, cannot be separated from the paint. This impure steel is then down-cycled instead of recycled. The same happens with paper fibers that have been pressed with ink. These materials can only be down-cycled so many times before they become useless materials and end up in the landfill. The current system of recycling does not remove the path between waste and landfills, it only delays it.

To reverse this course, manufacturers must create materials that are pure with processes that negate waste. Companies must retain the purity of these materials and take back those products that the current city recycling systems do not support, much like Apple, HP, and Preserve. And customers must educate themselves about how their recycling systems work, and support those companies that are making the effort to get it right. With effort from all corners, we can change our fate instead of delaying it.