Chapter 16

• Cradle-to-Cradle Design


  The life cycle of a product begins when it is manufactured (its cradle) and ends when it is discarded as solid waste, typically in a landfill or as litter (its grave)
• Cradle-to-Cradle Approach


  Thinking of products as parts of a continuing cycle instead of as materials that become solid waste that is burned or buried in landfills or that ends up as litter
• Cradle-to-Cradle Design


  • All products or their parts will be reused repeatedly in other products
  • Parts that are no longer useful would be degradable so that natural nutrient cycles could recycle their materials and chemicals
  • Degradable parts would be thought of as biological nutrients
  • Parts that are reused would be technical nutrients
• Cradle-to-Cradle Design is a form of biomimicry because it helps implement the earth's chemical cycling principle of sustainability
• Cradle-to-Cradle Approach


  1. Designing and building products such that when one part breaks, most of the other parts can be reused in the manufacture of a new product

  2. Using only biodegradable materials as much as possible so that worn-out, discarded parts will break down in the environment and become part of nature's nutrient cycles
• Biological Nutrients


  Parts of products that are degradable and can be recycled by natural nutrient cycles
• Technical Nutrients


  Parts of products that are reused
• In nature, waste equals food
• Applying Cradle-to-Cradle Approach


  1. Designing toxic substances out of products and processes

  2. Selling services instead of products
• Solid waste contributes to pollution and includes valuable resources that could be reused or recycled
• Hazardous waste contributes to pollution, as well as to natural capital degradation, health problems, and premature deaths
• In the natural world, there is essentially no waste because the wastes of one organism become nutrients or raw materials for others in food chains and food webs
• Humans violate the chemical cycling principle of sustainability by producing huge amounts of solid wastes that are burned, buried in landfills, or end up as litter
• Solid Waste


  Any unwanted or discarded material that is not a liquid or a gas
• Types of Solid Waste


  • Industrial solid waste
  • Municipal solid waste (MSW)
• Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)


  The combined solid wastes produced by homes and workplaces other than factories, including paper, cardboard, food wastes, cans, bottles, yard wastes, furniture, plastics, metals, glass, wood, and electronic waste
• Much of the world's MSW ends up as litter in rivers, lakes, the ocean, and natural landscapes
• The United States is the world's largest producer of MSW
• About 98.5% of all solid waste produced in the United States is industrial solid waste, and the remaining 1.5% is MSW
• Americans generate enough MSW each year to fill a bumper-to-bumper convoy of garbage trucks long enough to encircle the earth's equator almost six times
• Examples of Hazardous Waste


  • Car batteries (containing lead and acids)
  • Household pesticide products
  • Dry-cell batteries (containing mercury and cadmium)
  • Ash and sludge from incinerators and coal-burning power and industrial plants
  • Highly radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons facilities
• More-developed countries produce 80-90% of the world's hazardous wastes, and the United States produces the most hazardous waste
• Waste Management


  Reducing the environmental harm of solid wastes, typically by burying, burning, or shipping them to another location
• Waste Reduction


  Producing much less solid waste and reusing, recycling, or composting what is produced as much as possible
• Integrated Waste Management


  A variety of coordinated strategies for waste management and waste reduction
• The Four Rs of Waste Reduction

  • Refuse: Don't use it
  • Reduce: Use less of it
  • Reuse: Use it over and over
  • Recycle: Convert used resources to useful items and buy products made from recycled materials
• Composting is an important form of recycling that mimics nature by using bacteria and other decomposers to break down yard trimmings, vegetable food scraps, and other biodegradable organic wastes into materials that can be used to improve soil fertility
• The first three Rs (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse) are preferred because they are waste prevention strategies, while Recycle is a waste management strategy
• What We Should Do


  • Reduce
  • Reuse
  • Recycle/Compost
• What We Do


  • Bury
  • Recycle/Compost
  • Incinerate
  • Reuse
  • Incinerate
• FIGURE 16.6 Priorities recommended by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences for dealing with municipal solid waste (left) compared with actual waste-handling practices in the United States (right)
• Reduce


  Waste prevention approach that tackles the problem of waste production before it occurs
• Recycle


  Convert used resources to useful items and buy products made from recycled materials. An important form of recycling is composting, which mimics nature by using bacteria and other decomposers to break down yard trimmings, vegetable food scraps, and other biodegradable organic wastes into materials that can be used to improve soil fertility
• The first three Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) are preferred because they are waste prevention approaches that tackle the problem of waste production before it occurs. Recycling is important, but it deals with waste after it has been produced
• Some scientists and economists estimate that society could eliminate up to 80% of the solid waste it produces by following the four Rs strategy (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). This would mimic the earth's chemical cycling principle of sustainability
• Ways to use the four Rs of waste reduction to reduce your output of solid waste


  • Refuse packaging wherever possible
  • Rent, borrow, or barter goods and services when you can, buy secondhand, and donate or sell unused items
  • Buy things that are reusable, recyclable, or compostable, and be sure to reuse, recycle, and compost them
  • Buy products with little or no packaging and recycle any packaging as much as possible
  • Avoid disposables such as paper and plastic bags, plates, cups, and utensils, disposable diapers, and disposable razors whenever reusable versions are available
  • Cook with whole, fresh foods, avoid heavily packaged processed foods, and buy products in bulk whenever possible
  • Discontinue junk mail as much as possible and read online newspapers and magazines and e-books
• By refusing and reducing resource use and by reusing and recycling what we use, we decrease our consumption of matter and energy resources, reduce pollution and natural capital degradation, and save money
• Cradle-to-cradle design


  Elevates reuse to a new level by designing products so that when they are no longer useful, they can be retrieved from consumers for repair or remanufacture
• The European Union (EU) has banned e-waste from landfills and incinerators and requires electronics manufacturers to take back their products at the end of their useful lives. Consumers pay a recycling tax on electronic products to cover the costs of these programs
• Finland banned all beverage containers that cannot be reused, and consequently, 95% of that country's soft drink, beer, wine, and spirits containers are refillable