Cradle to Cradle: Design is a signal of intent

"All the ants on the planet, taken together, have a biomass greater than that of humans. Ants have been incredibly industrious for years. Yet. their productiveness nourishes plants, animals, and soils. Human industry has been in full swing for over a century, yet it has brought about a decline in almost every ecosystem on the planet. Nature doesn't have a design problem. People do."

Humans are the only species on the planet that are guilty of burdening beyond what it can withstand. We need to be humbled by the compexity and intelligence of nature's ability and design. We need to become native to our planet.

The industrial revolution changed the outputs and views of society where materials were considered expensive and people cheap. Industries fattened as they transformed resources into products. The products we see, sadly, only contain 5% of the raw materials actually needed in the process of making and delivering it to our doorstep.

Humans attept to work by their own rules which end up being contrary to nature. Our regulations and rules don't keep us safe, but keep us from being poisoned too quickly. According to the author, a permit is "a license to harm by government to an industry so that it may dispense sickness, destruction, and death at an acceptable rate." Couple of facts:
-of approximately 80,000 defined chemical and technical mixes, only 3,000 have been tested
-PVC plastics could contain phthalates, toxic dyes, lubricants, antioxidants, ultraviolet light stabilizers
-synthetic fertilizers contain cadmium and radioactive elements from phosphate rocks
-takes approximately 500 years for soil to build up an inch of its rich layers of microorganisms and nutrient flows, right now we are losing 5000x more soil than is being made
-average TV has 4360 chemicals

Our goal would be to have products we purchase and use to cycle indefinitely in the industrial cycle. We need to create designs that make good use of local material and energy flows. It is difficult to apply universal environmental solutions to local circunstancs (ex. solar power hard to maintain in Ireland). We need to not create damage and despair, but abundance and renewal. Throwaway products have become the norm.

Currently, our "environmental stances" are trying to be less bad. We need to be positive instead. The way to be positive is to design products to be "upcycled." Here we don't have to be intent on reduces/minimizing - in this process we can eliminate waste altogether.

The foundation of eliminating waste is to have it reabsorbed into either our industrial cycle or the natural environment. The problem is that air, water, and soil do not safely absorb our wastes unless the wastes themselves are completely healthy and biodegradable.

The idea would be to create products that can be taken apart and recycled. Take for example the shoe. Why not create a shoe where the sole can be removed and remade into another sole, instead of placing chemicals and natural materials into the landfill sites?